Different Beginnings
by FFNend
Summary: Sonic 1 Adaptation. When did Sonic meet Tails for the first time? And was it the first time he'd ever seen the fox? Fixed errors in last chapter FINISHED
1. Chapter 1 Freak of Life

**Different Beginings**

**A/N:** I normally have a clear set route for my stories, but this one I only have a few chapters written (from random points in the story). But I have been having trouble finishing any idea I get, so I've decided to upload this story to force myself to finish it.

**Warnings:**

Mature themes  
Violence  
Swearing (The story just didn't work without it, sorry)  
This story does not have the S/T pairing, however sequels will.

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**Chapter 1 - Freak of Life**

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The young fox ran, on all fours, quietly through the alleyways. He was scared, and rightly so. He knew what would happen if he was caught. He silently entered a dark alley, he had to get to somewhere safe before he was found.  
He ran around a corner and saw, up ahead, a dead end. He realised that, in his panic, he'd turned the wrong way through the labyrinth of alleyways which littered the area. He span around to back track but found himself face to knees with those he'd been trying to avoid.  
They didn't waste any time and he was forced against the wall, his light body twisting awkwardly as it hit. He crumpled to the ground and tried to escape, but two of his enemies were already holding his weak body down

"It's time for your treatment" The largest of them coldly told him as he moved closer. He whipped out a knife and slowly slid the knife gently along the whimpering fox's skin. Miles vainly tried to escape but it was no use. they were holding him too tightly. He twisted himself trying to escape but froze as he felt the knife slowly move along his skin again. He knew that if he moved at all the knife would go straight into him, and yet he knew that if he didn't he would have the blade cutting him anyway.

He stayed perfectly still as he felt the knife brush against his skin.  
"You are completely under my control, Freak" The knife holder told him as he was teased. "You think you're better than us, don't you? Parading around with that mutant tail. But, you know something, everybody hates you. They absolutely despise you. We know that you are the reason for everything bad that happens"

The panicking fox scanned his attackers and realised that he still had a chance to escape. He twisted away from the teasing blade of the knife and kneed his captor between the legs, instantly removing the restraining hands that were previously holding him in place.

He jumped between the legs of one of the gang members and ran as quickly as he could through the alleyway, his breathing harsh in his ears. He was already exhausted and the only thing keeping him moving was the memory of the knife slowly, teasingly brushing through his fur.

The young fox managed to keep up this pace until he had managed to escape into the untamed wilderness that surrounded the city, far away from his attackers.

He didn't even look around, or search for a better location, he just let his arms and legs give way and he was soon face down on the ground, fast asleep.

He would eventually reawaken and, for better or for worse, his life would never be the same.

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A/n: Aww, poor tails. As soon as I get a review, I will update.


	2. Chapter 2 How the Other Side Lives

**Different beginnings**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own it (I wonder if this actually holds any value in a court of law...probably not...actually, now that I think about it, I don't think that any guideline or anything actually demanding that a posted disclaimer is even required on a fanfic...)

**Warnings:**

Mature themes  
Violence  
Swearing (The story just didn't work without it, sorry)  
This story does not have the S/T pairing, however sequels will.

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**Chapter 2 - How the Other Side Lives**

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A young blue teenage hedgehog yawned as he lased around on the beach, seemingly unaware of the hundreds of people that currently surrounded him, begging for his autograph. The blue hedgehog had gained an amazingly large amount of popularity due to his latest win at the races. It seemed that no matter how he asked, people were always impressed that he could run at such astonishingly high speeds.

The lazy hedgehog absolutely loved being able to gain so much popularity through a few few slow races where his closest opponent could barely run at half his speed. Unfortunately for the hyper hedgehog, even with all this publicity, or more accurately because of this publicity, he was finding himself more and more cut off from others. With everyone seeing him as a hero, no one was acting like a real friend, and he was sick of the impersonal attention.

Eventually he managed to get away from the adoring crowd, running at the speed of sound is always useful. He decided then and there that he had to get away from everything. He decided that it was time for a vacation.

And his biplane was just begging to be flow.

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An hour later, Sonic was flying through the air in his trustworthy biplane. He absolutely loved being able to shoot through the air, the clouds either far above or far below him. Of course, Sonic preferred to run, rather than fly, if he had the choice, but that didn't mean that he didn't enjoy the experience just the same.

Three hours later, however, Sonic was starting to become majorly stir crazy and had taken to tying the planes controls in place, while he stretched on the planes wings. Unfortunately this absolutely brilliant idea...wasn't brilliant.

A stray higher pressure pocket affected the level flight of the plane and the plane steeply banked to the right, the plane veering off it's intended course and shooting towards the small chain of varying tropical West-side Islands. Sonic, taken by surprise from the sudden movement, only had time to grab hold of the wing of the plane as it began to bank sharply.

The plane's path began to rapidly change as the plane got caught in a spin. Luckily the skilled hedgehog managed to quickly clamber along the wing, the wind rushing past him threatening to throw him off, and forced his way back to the planes controls.

He struggled to wrestle the planes controls straight as the plane flew lower and lower towards the ground.

He glanced up a head and what he saw next chilled him to the bone.The plane was merely metres off the ground and there was a massive cliff face up ahead and Sonic was unsure that he would be able to even regain the plane before the plane hit the cliff face. Still, he wasn't about to mess around with 'what ifs'.

He forced the controls harder than they were ever designed to take and the plane struggled to pull itself out of the nearly crippling dive. Luckily, the hedgehog managed to turn the plane away from the incoming cliff, and instead the plane was now running alongside the massive natural rock wall.

The blue hedgehog cheered. throwing his arms up in the air, letting go of the control. Congratulating himself on such a good job. Unfortunately this was all it took for the plane to veer a few feet to the left, towards the rock wall.

The planes left wing scraped noisily along the wall and the pilot was forced to quickly drop his cheer and managed to pull the plane into a stable flight. Unfortunately the wing was heavily damaged and the blue hedgehog was struggling to keep his biplane level. He quickly realized that he had no choice but to land the plane at the first available time.

He twisted the controls and the plane twisted awkwardly through the air. He looked down and noticed a reasonably flat beach below. He quickly dropped his height and skimmed the sand shore,accidentally clipping the landing gear. The plane's wheels dug in and the plane crashed hard on the ground, pinwheeling over and throwing the hedgehog away from his plane and into a large pile of sand.

Shaking himself, to dislodge all of the sand that had accumulate all over himself, the blue hedgehog pulled himself to his feet to survey the remains of his plane. Luckily it wasn't in bad shape. And he was sure that it wouldn't be to difficult to fix if he could find someone to repair it for him.

Little did the hedgehog know that there was one such person barely a mile away, crawling silently on the cold hard stony forest floor, his body covered in cuts and brusies.

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**A/n**: I couldn't be bothered waiting for a review before posting the second chapter, now I'm off to get a drink and maybe continue on the third chapter. A review would be nice.


	3. Chapter 3 Not Quite So Free

**Different Beginnings**

**A/N:** I've just realized that I have misspelled the title (I forgot an 'n') Oops. I'd better go fix that now.

**Warnings:**

Mature themes  
Violence  
Swearing (The story just didn't work without it, sorry)  
This story does not have the S/T pairing, however sequels will.

Asher Tye: You were really quick at reviewing (just 18 minutes after I uploaded the story, and just a minute before I uploaded the second chapter), I barely had time to format and upload the second chapter before you reviewed. Heck, you even managed to review the second chapter nineteen minutes later. Well done.

Now why can't the rest of you also review like that? (According to the stat, of the 35 hits I got on the second chapter, 33 of them were different users….and only Asher Tye reviewed)

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**Chapter 3 - Not Quite So Free**

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The sun beat down on the uncomfortable fox, awakening him from his light slumber. He feebly raised his head and gazed around the forest, seemingly surprised that he had survived his escape from his tormentors. He tiredly pulled himself to his paws, gentle twisting his neck, attempting to reduce the pain he'd gained from the awkward night's rest. He slowly scanned his surroundings, until his empty stomach rumbled loudly; forcing him to realize that he would have to obtain some nutrients if he wished to avoid starvation. He weakly traversed over the uneven terrain of the forest, cautiously staying on all fours to keep a low profile. He carefully moved through the shrubbery with a practice that he had gained through his many years alone in the Mobian forest.

He was checking the nearby flora for edible foods, when a loud crash reverberated throughout the forest. Startled by the loud sound, the young fox instantly dropped himself, down to barely an inch off the ground, and quickly ran through the forest. He knew that whatever had caused the deafening sound was most likely dangerous to him, and he would need to ensure that he could remain safe from the potential hazard. So, staying low to the ground to reduce his target size, he quickly scampered along the forest's rough terrain, attempting to pinpoint the origin of the loud disturbance.

He quickly covered the ground between him and his target, in his haste accidentally scratching his frail body on low lying branches, and soon arrived at the source of the loud sound.

He cautiously spied through the shrubbery to see a blue hedgehog pull himself out of the sandy pile he had apparently landed in, and shake the sand out of his quills. Behind the hedgehog, the young fox saw a slightly damaged, antique biplane, lying haphazardly in the sand, its left wing damaged and the body twisted.

He silently watched through the foliage's cover, as the hedgehog gazed up and down the beach, wondering why the hedgehog had landed on the beach when the kit knew that there was an airport just a few miles away.

He heard the hedgehog lament on his poor flying skills as the blue creature surveyed the damage that had occurred to the plane. The young fox was about to return when the hedgehog suddenly disappeared in a blue flash that shot over the beach and deep into the undergrowth. The surprise of the sudden disappearance of the blue hedgehog was soon gone from the tired kit's mind as hi eyes locked onto the abandoned plane.

Walking quietly out into the open, after the young kit had cautiously looking both ways to ensure that there was no one waiting to hurt him, and slowly made his way carefully down to the plane. He quickly surveyed the damage. Luckily, the plane didn't appear to be in too bad a shape and the young fox was sure that if he could spend some time on it, he could get it to work.

He smiled as he quickly began work on repairing the plane, daydreaming of fixing the damaged plane and using it to finally escape all those who hurt him and travel to a far away place where no one would tease him because of his mutant tails. He dreamed of a time in which someone would finally care for him, knowing all to well how unlikely the event was.

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The young fox toiled away for many hours, ignoring his dehydration and starvation, in his bid to resurrect the plane back to its former functionality. He worked harder and harder, as the sun's never ending heat beat down on his frail body, sapping away the small amount of energy the young fox could spare to work on the plane. Hours passed and it was becoming harder and harder for his tired body to respond how his mind ordered, but he persevered in his attempts and eventually he managed, after many hours of suffering, to finish repairing the plane's damaged wing.

The small kit allowed himself to smile momentarily when he finally finished repairing the planes wing and was finally ready to test the engine. He cautiously checked over the engine, ensuring that everything was working, and reached out for the ignition.

However, fate wasn't going to be kind to the small pilot today.

Right at that point a loud laugh echoed up along the beach, striking deep into the kit's mind and the evil sound sounded along the beach.

Startled by the sudden sound the fox span around quickly gazing at the disturbance.

He was absolutely horrified to see, hovering over him, an extremely fat man sitting in a hovering seat which appeared to be floating in midair with nothing supporting the device. Well, actually, the main thing that horrified him was the enormous cannon pointing straight at the young kit. The fox, trembling in the revelation that this day could be his last, was too frightened to move and froze still as the evil genius slowly piloted his flying seat closer to the kit, scrutinizing his pale form.

The evil genius studied to fox, smiled evil as he did so. "I believe that you could be useful to me" The evil genius muttered slightly to himself as his robotic monstrosity's functionality changed. The overzealous cannon's ammunition alternated to it's secondary supply and, without a single word passing from the evil genius' lips, fired a barrage of hypodermic syringes at the small kit, giving the young fox's body no time to even attempt to get out of the way of the potentially life threatening attack.

The young fox felt a sharp syringe pierce his frail skin, pumping it's payload of dangerous neurotoxin into his body, stealing away what little remained of the poor fox's energy reserves, almost instantly forcing him into a deep sleep, filled with violent nightmares.

All of them revolving around his attacker and his last painful moments.

The evil genius watched, greatly amused, as the fox fell heavily to the ground, his body making no attempt, whatsoever to stop his fall. He ordered one of his previously hidden robotic minions to take the fox back to his robotic empire for testing, and then all thought of his freak captive was forgotten as he flew higher to survey the island he was about to conquer, his mind deeply concerned with his evil plans to become the supreme ruler of the world.

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I hope this chapter was better than the previous ones.


	4. Chapter 4 Blue's First Attack

**Different Beginnings**

**a/n:** This story has got to be one of the easiest ones I've ever written. As soon as I think of a chapter, it flows so easily for me and I only have to stop when I think of something else to write elsewhere (like that English essay I'm meant to be doing right NOW)...oh and I also actually converted the measurements used in this fic from metric to imperial since most of my readers are from countries (coughAmericacough) that use that system of measure, but I'm still going to use my country's spelling.

Please review if you are enjoying the story (or if you're not. Really any excuse will do, even if you just saw a cool website or something, I'll still read it)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Sonic, that's Sega's job. (this holds no legal status anyway so it's completely irrelevant)

**Warnings: Mature themes, Violence, Swearing (The story just didn't work without it, though it won't appear for quite a few more chapters), This story does not have the S/T pairing, however sequels will/do. (there won't even be mentions in the story)**

**Pokelad:** You won't find out until you read it (though I'm not any good at writer's slight of hand, so you'll probably know soon enough)

**Asher Tye:** I should be offended that you say that the only good part about the previous chapter was that it set up a scene…but since that's exactly what is was for, I can't really complain (you should probably just forget what I just wrote). Anyway, I'm glad that you are enjoying reading my story, now. Oh, and about Tails capture, let's just say that this won't be as simple as Sonic freeing Tails.

Anyway, thanks for the reviews, here's the next chapter.

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**Chapter 4 Blue's First Attack**

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As the evil genius laughed at the poor fox's discomfort, a lone blue hedgehog was hiding silently in the shadows of the forest, watching the proceedings with anger. Sonic watched in absolute shock as the evil genius ordered his robots to take the poor defenceless fox away. He couldn't believe that anyone could so indifferent to the suffering of others that they would actually enjoy attacking such a defenceless creature. The very sound of the evil man's laughter made Sonic's blood more than just boil, it made it superheat.

He barely resisted growling as he watched the adult brag to himself about what an amazing job he had done with his successful capture of the freak, the insult to the unfortunate fox almost harder to handle than anything else he'd seen. As he watched the man boast to his robots about his mission to conquer the world, he coldly concluded then and there that he would do absolutely anything to stop the evil being from being able to carry out his insidious plan.

It was right then and there that Sonic made a vow to himself to stop terrible events, like the one he had just witnessed, from ever occurring while he still had the breath to stop them. With this new founded resolve, the hedgehog slowly raised himself to his feet, his eyes sparking in absolute determination, and an almost invisible aura surrounded him, unnoticed by the furious hedgehog.

With his heart pounding in determination and an inane voice inside of him compelling him to continue, Sonic the hedgehog walked boldly out of the forest and stood within striking range of the sinful enemy.

The immoral anti-anorexic genius turned, his eyes instantly locking onto the small blue hedgehog that stood defiantly before him. The hedgehog gave off a supreme appearance of indifference to the large array of weaponry that was soon flung in his direction, and he dimply watched as the evil genius charged the weaponry.

"Stop what you are doing, and face the consequences" Sonic told the evil maniac, standing his ground, seemingly indifferent to the danger he was in, even though his heart was now pumping hard with both panic and adrenalin.

To anyone watching, the extremely brave hero would've been seen as ignorant of the danger he was in, however this was far from the truth, he was anything but ignorant of his danger, he simply was too determined to care. All he cared about was bringing the evil man to the hedgehog's own twisted, and typically painful, version of justice.

The evil genius was finding that watching a hedgehog staring at him, with not a single trace of fear in his eyes that was instead replaced by a fierce look of anger and aggression that the obese man was momentarily afraid of unleashing.

However the feeling soon left and the objectionable enemy just merely laughed at the cliché banter from his new animal rival. "Do you really believe that a tiny animal like you, who probably hasn't defeated a single thing in his entire resistance, is going to have any chance against me, the great Doctor Robotnik?" He asked the small hedgehog with sarcasm dripping from his teeth, his face showing his rage at being stood up to by the small hedgehog "Because, if you do, let me tell you one thing. You will die slowly and painfully by my hands with you final wish that I quicken your own painful demise"

For some strange reason Sonic the hedgehog just couldn't bring himself to care about the threats that the evil mastermind was yelling to him. HE just casually shrugged, strangely unaffected by the situation he had found himself in. The hedgehog was starting to find that he absolutely loved the feeling of danger that surrounded him, and the support from knowing that he was doing to right thing boosted the claim exponentially.

"I doubt it" He answered quietly, and then decided to raise the stakes "A fat tub of lard like you would never be able to catch me. I'm amazed that the sun hasn't been sucked in by the gravity pull you fat gut most likely posses. Seriously, have you ever heard of this little thing I like to call exercise, heck, have you ever even seen your toes?"

The evil master-mind's face instantly changed hue from an unhealthy red, to an extremely unhealthy hue of purple. Sonic could've sworn that there was even steam beginning to come from his ears. The blue hedgehog actually chuckled, for some reason he had no problem standing in harms way and not caring at all. "Whoa, calm down there old man. If you don't, you might die from that high blood pressure" He told the evil man in a condescending tone that one might use for a naughty child.

One look at the angry man, towering over the small hedgehog, his face a mask of rage, and his fingers barely an inch off the button which could instantly obliterate the small animals life, would have any sane person cowering in fear and begging for mercy, but Sonic just couldn't bring himself to care. And he figured that he was pretty sure that the angry enemy before him wasn't going to let his anger guide him.

He was wrong.

The audible click of the electric switch seemed to echo along the beach as Doctor Robotnik finally pressed the button the end the hedgehog's life. However, from that very point on nothing would be easy for the evil genius ever again. The cannons either side of him didn't hesitate, they instantly fired their deadly payload, and suddenly the blue hedgehog disappeared from his position on the beach, reappearing behind the Doctor, sand still falling from where his footsteps had disturbed the ground. The evil megalomaniac quickly span around the controls to face the hedgehog. However the hedgehog moved again, forcing Robotnik to again reposition the craft.

"Why don't you just stand still so I can kill you already?" The megalomaniac yelled, angry at his prey's evasion. Growing much too annoyed at the speedy hedgehog, as his target continued to evade his every attack; the evil mastermind decided that it was time to deploy his next weapon. With the snap of another switch before him, a large flame throwing mechanical gun sprouted almost organically from the front of the ship. "Let's cook me some hedgehog" He yelled as he aimed and fired the massive weapon at the blue hedgehog.

Sonic ducked for cover as the jet of lethal flames from the evil genius' flame thrower shot through the air at him. He felt the burning flames singe the hair on the back of his neck as he rolled behind his trust plane, the metallic body deflecting the worst of the heat.  
"Would you just stay still for a second?" Eggman yelled out in anger as Sonic dodged yet another deadly attack. He flipped yet another switch and a large wrecking ball with massive spikes lowered from the bottom of the flying craft. "Why don't you try to dodge this?"

Sonic quickly rolled out away from his priceless plane as the wrecking ball swung through the air, picking up an unimaginably fast speed. The deadly construction met the outer ribs of the plane and the wings were instantly torn apart, splinters of wood and metal flew everywhere as the wrecking ball smashed through the plane, leaving it in ruins.

One look at the sad wreckage of his plane, and Sonic's anger reached boiling point. He felt an unimaginable furious anger awaken within himself. He slowly crawled to his feet and stood stock still as the large lethal flying projectile was swung in his direction. The temporarily suicidal hedgehog grinned as he watched the object approach his unprotected body, and tensed to act. At the last possible second before the deadly impact, the daring hedgehog, forcing his body to respond unnaturally fast, leapt at the unprotected bottom of the flying contraption and curled himself into a ball, seemingly acting on pure instinct.

His sharp quills slicked through the underside of the craft, like the proverbial circular saw cut through rice paper, scraping noisily as his quills dug deep into the electronic workings. He fell back down onto his knees and just managed to roll to his side to avoid the deadly spiky sphere as it returned on it's previous swing.

Suddenly the circular ball was released and fell to the ground, showing clouds of sand everywhere, clouding Sonic's view of Doctor Robotnik.

As the sand fell to the ground he glanced around and was angry to see that the enemy had managed to escape in the confusion of the sand cloud.

He wearily pulled himself to his feet and inspected the damage of the plane, smiling he saw that the majority of the damage was merely cosmetic, with only the wings actually damaged and the central body of the plane entirely untouched. He shook himself, to rid his body from the deposits of sand that were stuck in his quills, looking around the beach, wondering what he should do to.

Or, rather, how to save the young fox he had seen captured.

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I hope that everyone enjoyed that chapter. Please review.


	5. Chapter 5 A Good Offer

**Different Beginnings**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own whatever it is that you think I'm using without permission.

**Warnings:** Mature themes, Violence, Swearing

**A/n:** Eek, this story is starting to choose it's own direction. I was planning on a meeting different to this one, but I guess the story just wants to write itself.

**Zachary W: **You are going to review, even when you don't have anything to say? Alright, then. I hope that I'll give you enough to talk about in the story though.

**Asher Tye: **I found the real battle, to be a bit silly, so I gave Eggy a few extra weapons, I'm glad I have still kept it recognizable.

Thanks for ther reviews.

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**Chapter 5 A Good Offer**

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The poor kit weakly awakened from his forcefully-imposed sleep to view his new drab surroundings, cold grayish walls surrounded his weak body with the only escape appearing to be a solid metal door that the poor fox was sure he would never be able to even dent. He tiredly tried to pull himself to his feet, but found himself restrained against one of the cold, concrete cell walls with a short length of chain attached in a smooth metallic collar around his neck, and smaller versions around his wrists. He winced as he moved, each cuff chafing his skin, making it painfully tender. Sighing loudly, he twisted his body awkwardly to gain a more comfortable state, which he quickly deemed impossible, and wondered to himself why everyone he seemed to meet hated him.

"It's not my fault" He whispered to himself, the deep sadness held within his frail body threatened to make him loose all hope and break down and cry "I didn't ask to be born a freak, I just want someone who's willing to be nice to me and not hurt me. But whenever I try to make friends they always hurt me" His heart now weighing heavily in his chest, he slumped against the ground, no longer caring about himself in the depths of his emotional trauma.

He slowly closed his eyes, to try and steal some sleep before his captor either hurt him or worse, and whispered to himself a wish that his very soul desired. "I just wish that someone, somewhere, would be my friend"

His heart heavy, and his mind empty, the poor kit slumped down awkwardly as he allowed his body to fall back into an uncomfortable sleep that was filled with objects of horror form the poor fox's past that still frightened him to the very core of his heart.

However, his poor body wasn't allowed to rest for long and soon he was awoken by a robotic hand pulling him to his feet, his body struggled to return to full consciousness as he was almost practically dragged through the large fortress that he had only caught glimpses of before. He felt a metallic arm twist around him, helping him stand. The fox didn't even realize that he was no longer cuffed to the wall, too tired to think to do anything other that look around himself and realize that he was being led through a truly enormous hanger that had all sorts of robotic assembly lines. However the truly creepy part of the place was that everything was off and only the poor fox and his robotic guide were moving through.

The robotic guide stopped him before some rusting, but still imposing, metal doors that looked completely impregnable. The doors slowly hissed open and a light breeze softly blew through his fur as the large metallic doors before him. The room beyond was brightly lit and was a stark contrast to the dim room he had been previously led through, that he was forced to squint until his eyes adjusted to the light.

His captor, the evil doctor who had shot him with those painful needles that made the young fox shudder at the very memory, stood before him. He was standing in a large room that was filled from top to bottom with a massive array of electrical equipment that look faintly frightening to his young mind. The young fox slowly stepped forward and opened his mouth, planning on yelling at the evil mastermind, but he never had time because, as soon as he opened his mouth, Doctor Robotnik preempted him.

"Wait" The genius told him, his voice not as cold as it had been earlier that day, though whether it was sincere or not, was unsure. "Now, I'm sure that you are very angry at me for what I did, but I did it with your best interests at heart" He smiled his own sinister version of genuine, that made the small kit feel uncomfortable.

"W..what do you mean?" Miles asked quietly, as he tiredly rested, leaning against the robotic guide for support.

"I'm sorry for taking such drastic measures," The evil genius began "but there was an evil hedgehog hiding in the trees, and he has been known to murder innocent children for entertainment, and I was unwilling to let you become yet another victim of the sadistic hedgehog. SO I shot you with some hypodermic needles to tranquilize you so I could quickly get you out of there without you wasting time resisting, and without blowing the fact that I knew that he was there. Thanks to my surprise attack, I managed to slow him down, but sadly I didn't manage to defeat him"

"Why did you say that I would be of use to you then" Miles asked confused. His young mind didn't realize that he was being lied to and his only worry was that he was being annoying to the helpful old man

"I do have a very good use for you, to help me defeat the evil hedgehog. You could be an extremely useful resource in this planets battle against that infernal blue hedgehog, I'm sure with your exceptional mechanical expertise and...other features, you could become an excellent asset. I hope that you will join me in my fight to unite the varying islands of Mobius under one government. You see that as a morally correct ambition, don't you. And I hope that you will join me to fight with my side. To make the world a better place."

The young kit pondered on the situation for a few moments, on one hand he had seen this man act in an extremely uncouth manner towards other individuals, on the other, he appeared to be the first person the ever listen to him and consider the poor child as anything other than a freak. Bu there was still one thing that bothered him"Why was I cuffed up in a cell before?"

The large man before him just sighed loudly and looked at Miles guiltily "Well, you see, My robot's artificial Intelligence and I never gave them enough information to understand when I imply something, so when I ordered the robot to take you back to my base, it did, and then it chained you up as I programmed it to do so for all enemies, not that you're an enemy of course. I'm dreadfully sorry about that misunderstanding and I hope that you will forgive me"

To the poor kit, it was an easy choice. "I will fight with you" He told the mastermind quietly, unsure of what he was jumping headlong into. "I just hope that my skills will be enough"

"Ohohoho" The mastermind laughed loudly, obviously pleased with how everything was progressing "This will be perfect. Me, with my absolutely excellent mind and ideas, you with your mechanical skills, we will be able to save this world from this terrible monstrosity that has been unleashed"

He smiled, somewhat warmly at Miles as they both stood silently "This is going to be an excellent alliance, now come on, fox-boy, it's time to build our army.

Miles followed, wondering whether he had really taken the right path.

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**a/n:** Some more reviews would be nice, tell me what I did well (and what I didn't)


	6. Chapter 6 Finding A New Direction

**Different Beginnings**

**Disclaimer:** ……………………Insert disclaimer here………………………

**A/n:** This story has officially taken control of itself. I initially intended for this story to go a completely different direction. But that's a good thing.

**Zachary W:**I really look forward to that fic coming out soon.

**Asher Tye:**Thanks for the review; I hope you are enjoying reading it as much as I did writing it.

Thanks for the reviews.

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**Chapter 6 Finding A New Direction**

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It would've taken an ordinary creature over an hour to reach the Mobian City, but for Sonic the journey was a mere four minutes, at a casual jog. The speed didn't even phase the young hedgehog; he had been running at remarkably high speed since his birth nine years ago. And using his incredible natural talent he had been winning races in both cross country and track events. His skill had gained him incredible amounts of popularity, however he had recently being banned from the races after too many sponsors had complained that he had made the sport of racing boring and no longer entertaining by finishing races that were suppose to take hours, and finishing them in mere minutes.

So he had been forced out of his passion, and been thrown of to the sideline, though he had managed to retain his popularity.

So, it was rather entertaining to him that even though the speed that he was travelling at was barely a jog, to the other inhabitants of the city he'd just entered, it was a very big deal. He slowed down somewhat to enjoy the looks of obvious amazement. He had to admit to himself, he absolutely loved to show off in front of others. But today he found the feeling to be somewhat hollow as his mind kept on rerunning the capture of the poor fox he'd seen earlier that day.

The same image of the small fox's face, a look of terror, as he was captured, still sent shivers down the blue hedgehog's spine. He knew that he would track down the fox and try to help him. He didn't know why, he didn't know how, but he knew that he would.

It was barely a minute after he entered the city before he was standing outside the city's central police station. He entered slowly through the station's revolving door, enjoying the cool breeze of the interiors air conditioning as it flowed through his quills, and managed to call over a police officer who looked like they had had a few too many doughnuts.

"Um, excuse me sir, but I would like to report a crime in the area" Sonic began slowly, hoping that he was approaching the matter properly

The police officer nodded and beckoned him to continue.

"I arrived on this island a few days earlier and I found a small fox, however I didn't get to talk to him because a morbidly obese human flew down and captured him." Sonic told him, realizing half way through exactly how far fetched the story seemed.

The officer just rolled his eyes "This city has enough problems with you wasting my time" He told Sonic, his voice low and angry at the waste of time "If you keep this behaviour up I'm going to lock you up for badgering a police officer. Now, could you please leave before I make good on my threat"

Sonic sighed and left the station dejectedly. "What on Mobius am I going to do?" He asked himself as he began walking through the city, with little decision regarding direction. However, the decision was soon made for him by an incredibly loud explosion that appeared far off into the distance. He frowned as he watched a massive plume of smoke rise up into the air.

"Well, I guess I know what I need to do" He muttered to himself as he shot out of the city towards his next destination.

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**a/n:** I know it's a bit short, but I'm currently studying for my HSC...so the updates will be anything but constant.


	7. Chapter 7 Accidents

**Different Beginnings**

**Disclaimer:** Random words because I suspect that no one reads this.

**A/n:** The story is still directing itself.

**Asher Tye:**Quick review. Just 10 minutes after I updated. You are REALLY getting fast.

Thanks for the review.

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**Chapter 7 Accidents**

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Miles nervously entered the robotic hanger where Doctor Robotnik, the genius which had taken him in to help in the fight against the evil Sonic the hedgehog. His small build helping to avoid the smoke as it slowly cleared from the massive hanger through the various exhaust fans, which were installed for exactly such a reason, that pumped the smoke out into the Mystical Ruins that lay above the secret base.

He found the genius angrily kicking one of his robotic minions and cursing it for its incompetence. The fox cleared his throat noisily to alert Doctor Robotnik to his presence. The obese man quickly span around and looked over at the small fox nervously, obviously embarrassed to be found acting so childish. However, he quickly recovered.

"Well, that was a bad idea" The excessively fat man told his new partner "I told one of my robotic minions to test one of the smoke bombs, and the stupid thing did it in the same room as me" He aimed another kick at the robot before he caught himself again "Um, so, how did your plans go?"

The young fox shrugged "Well, I've only designed four robotic designs that could work. A BurraBot, a small robot that looks like a mole. It hides underground and when our enemy comes near, it leaps in the air and attacks. I'm planning on making it run off just normal batteries, but the life time will only be about five minutes, but that should be enough. Each BurraBot will only take about half an hour to create and I could probably create twenty or so of them today" The young fox told him happily, enjoying the chance to show off in front of someone without them calling him a freak.

"Then there are the Jaws, some small piranha looking bots that will bite him if he comes close. They will only take about ten minutes or so, so I'll be able to create plenty. I also created a smaller robot called a BatBot that will hide on the ceiling and when he comes closer, they will dive at him and either scare him a heap, or attack him. And the best part is that they only take a few minutes to make. I've actually already made a whole bunch of them. And lastly there's this really cool robot that I'm going to call the Unidus. It's this really cool glowing sphere that I got to float in the air, and when he comes close, it shoots one of its four outer spheres at him. The best part is that he can't attack it until after I've fired all four of the outer spheres. But the problem is that it takes me a while to make each one. I only have one prototype working at the moment"

The fox's ears drooped down and his voice went sour as he continued "I just wish I could be more helpful to you. I mean, you took me in and everything, but I can't seem to be able to create anything that could repay you for your kindness"

The genius just chuckled "You have helped me a lot already, you silly young fox" He told him kindly "If it weren't for the fur, you would remind me of a younger version of myself. I'm sure that the robot's you've planned will be adequate to defeat the hedgehog. However, I'm afraid that we are going to have to leave this base soon"

"Why?" Miles asked quietly

"That smoke cloud has become a pretty obvious sign that we are hiding in the Mystic Ruins. You know as well as I do, that the hedgehog is excellent at tricking people into helping him, so it's only a matter of time before he, or someone he's coerced, sees the plume of smoke. So we'd better leave. You take the jet, and I'll launch the traps, maybe we will get lucky" The genius informed the young fox and he quickly began typing instructions to his robotic minions.

Miles quickly turned and fled along the base's many darkened corridors as he raced to the jet. He knew that the hedgehog could reach the base within minutes of spotting the base and the young fox knew exactly how dangerous the hedgehog could be from the damage he'd seen on the flying craft that Doctor Robotnik had been using before.

So it should be no surprise at all that he managed to leave the base and fly out before Sonic even arrived.

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**a/n:** This chapter was also a bit short, but at least it was added only 2 hours after the first. Please review.


	8. Chapter 8 The Marble Ruins

**Different Beginnings**

**Disclaimer:** Unnecessary Text goes here. Unnecessary Text goes here.

**A/n:** This chapter was interesting to write. Oh, and I know there is a clear distinction between lava and magma (lave surface, magma underground) but I just went with whatever word seemed best for the situation...well that's my excuse anyway.

**Asher Tye:**I never said that Tails came up with them ALL

**Koike:** Waiting until the seventh chapter isn't evil. I sure hope this one doesn't turn 'crappy'.

On another note, I've already gotten over 600 hits, I wonder how good that is.

Thanks for the reviews/hits

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**Chapter 8 The Marble Ruins**

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Sonic slowed down to a walk as he entered the ancient ruins, which were better known as the Marble Ruins. He gazed around the area and found that it was actually a rather picturesque place, if it wasn't for the massive lava lakes and dangerously unstable terrain that made traversing the area excessively dangerous.

He had actually read up a bit on the area, by accident of course. Apparently it had been a thriving ancient community a few centuries ago, however for some reason the area's underground magma streams rose up and took over the areas, destroying the majority of the settlement. It was somewhat of a strange area. Some of the ancient technology of the time was working completely and seemed to have never aged, such as the mechanical pumps that kept the underground areas relatively clear of magma, and then there were other parts where everything was just gone.

He yawned tiredly as he cautiously stepped along the uneven terrain, knowing that if he pushed too hard on the ground, the thin crust of earth beneath him could rupture, causing the magma, that was hidden just beneath the surface in many areas of the ancient ruins, to come rushing to the surface and he would have to rush to another section of the terrain. And, to put it plainly, he couldn't be bothered with all that hassle.

It was much too early in the morning. After his tiring battle with the morbidly obese man, that he had witnessed heartlessly capturing a fox and most likely taking the poor kit from his family, he was already exhausted and something told him the he wasn't very far along his journey. So he had decided to conserve what little energy he currently possessed and to try to avoid running as well.

Surprisingly he didn't feel all that disappointed to stop running, for some reason, taking his time to travel was incredibly relaxing, and besides, he was sure that he would be needing his useful skills soon enough.

The Marble Ruins were always a dangerous place to be, however as soon as he arrived, Sonic realized that someone had apparently decided that the area just wasn't quite dangerous enough, after all it only had deadly lava and increasingly unstable ruins, and they had somehow added a large selections of robotic creations were easily seen moving along the many islands that made up the Marble Ruins.

As he surveyed the area, unwilling to venture further than a few feet into the lava wasteland, Sonic spotted something that completely changed his mind. Far off into the distance, in what appeared to be the centre of the Ruins, the young fox he had seen before was dangling helplessly over a pit of lava, his small hands struggling to retain their grip on the crumbling architecture that he was currently hanging precariously from.

Uncaring for the weak ground beneath him, or for the numerous robots poorly hidden throughout the ruins, Sonic leapt forward and ran at the fox as quickly as he could. He dashed past the strange caterpillar type robots, with their backs lined with spikes, and ducked beneath low flying robots, which shot out balls of fire whenever he came to close.

He had been particularly surprised when he had been attacked by a small mechanical bat which flew out at him and, after he had ducked away, smashed straight into the wall behind him.

He had been forced to roll past most of the numerous dangers of the area and, after managing to acquire a few hundred scratched from 'close calls', he finally arrived at the location where he'd seen the young fox hanging. However, as soon as he arrived he realized his mistake. The 'fox' was wavering through the air and it was obvious that the hedgehog had been tricked by a hologram. Angry that someone had used him to get him in the middle of the dangerous area, he quickly scanned the ruins and saw a glimmer of metal hiding behind one of the old decrepit ruins.

Realizing that it was most likely the person responsible for tricking him, obviously in the vain hope that the hedgehog would kill himself in his hurry to help the non-existent fox, Sonic crept up silently over to the opponent. Unfortunately, for all his stealth, it was completely unnecessary. His on body heat was picked up by the proximity sensors and, before the hedgehog could blink, the same flying craft shot out of the ground, with the morbidly obese man, who had previously tried to kill him with a massive spiked ball, sitting comfortably inside.

Unfortunately, Sonic didn't have time to ask how such a coincidence had occurred before me was dodging an extremely hot jet of magma that shot out from the bottom of the craft, directly at him. The excessively hot jet of fire and lava instantly charred the ground beneath his feet, causing the blades of grass beneath his feet to instantly ignite.

Sonic was forced to leap over the now charred ground onto another section of unaffected terrain.

"What the heck is wrong with you?" Sonic called out, before he was forced to dash out of the way from another jet of flames and magma.

He slipped on the second turn and almost slid straight into the lava. Realizing that things were starting to become much too dangerous, and with his speed no longer acting as a fail safe in such a dangerous area. Sonic realized, regrettably, that he was going to have to fight back again.

Without even providing a clear warning to the attacking enemy, Sonic immediately jumped through the air, spinning as quickly as he could, splaying out his razor sharp spines as he flew through the air. With a loud screech, as thick panels of metal were tortured and torn, Sonic's quills dug deep into the underbelly of the attacking craft.

As soon as he was free, he through out his hands and landed awkwardly on the ground, barely a foot from another lake of lava. Glancing behind himself, he saw that the flying craft was mostly unaffected by the attack, and he realized that it would take more than a single hit to take it down again. He quickly jumped to his feet to dodge yet another attack, and managed to gain some purchase off the weak ground beneath himself, and jumped straight at the front of the flying craft, reasonably sure that anything of value, control wise, would be contained in that part of the craft.

He was partially right. As his quills tore through the craft's outer skin and deep through the inner workings of the craft, the magma cannon stopped functioning, and the evil mastermind, who had managed to stay silent up to this point, suddenly erupted in a stream of insults at the hedgehog for causing so much damage.

"You freak" The evil genius yelled angrily at Sonic as he landed somewhat awkwardly on the ground. "How did you destroy my cannon with those silly blue quills of yours, you blue weirdo"

Sonic slowly stood and looked eyes with him in the best intimidating stare, well as best as one can get when they are tired and yawning at the same time as staring. "I will defeat you. You are attacking people for no reason and I will stop you" Sonic told him coldly.

The evil genius just rolled his eyes. "Sure, whatever you think. Have you see me attack anyone except your precious fox? The answer is no. I haven't hurt a thing. So why don't you get lost while I 'look after' the fox"

The evil genius' craft suddenly shot through the air, across the terrain and through the forest, much quicker that Sonic could ever manage across the rugged terrain.

Sighing, Sonic watched him go.

"You may not have attacked anyone but me or that fox" Sonic whispered to himself as the craft finally disappeared into the distance "but I will stop you anyway. No one should be able to treat a fellow Mobian like that. And I intend to save that fox from you"

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**a/n:** I would really like it if you would, please, review.


	9. Chapter 9 Differences

**Different Beginnings**

**Disclaimer:** ……………I'm lazy, sue me.

**A/n:** I took the robot names/descriptions from sonicretro .org

**Asher Tye:** I'm glad that you are enjoying the story.

**Zachary W: **Don't worry that chapters will get longer. Besides I am updating every day or so (well on average it is every 1.5 days).

Thanks for the reviews/hits.

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**Chapter 9 Differences**

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Hidden deep withing the sprawling urban area, nicknamed Spring Yard by it's inhabitants because of the shoddy construction of the urban mecca that occasionally behaved as a trampoline for some unexplained reason, A young fox named Miles sighed as he finished construction on his fourth robot, a large mechanical ball that would charge at his enemy, Sonic hedgehog, and possibly knock him out, making capture easier. Miles was forced to make it's body unravel and reveal a weakness to search the area for the hedgehog to ensure that the robot would detect him and unfortunately he couldn't think of a better mechanic. He called the end result of all his work Roller, because it's main movement was through rolling.

He had originally hoped that the doctor would be appreciative of his skills and allow him to construct or build an army of his creations, but for some reason he kept of being limited to just a few, so the young fox was instead making sure that none of the robots he created would function incorrectly, and he was also spending time making them look nicer and adding programming to make them pretend to act natural to their environment.

He had even designed a plan for a bunny robot that would bounce around the level, flattening everything, but he had quickly dismissed his plan for 'Splats'. The robot could potentially kill the hedgehog, and the last thing he ever wanted to do was have one of his robots kill someone. All of his designs were created with the sole purpose of either knocking the hedgehog unconscious or stunning him.

Unfortunately, the Doctor kept on modifying his robots' programs before they were released and the idiot was making them lethal. All in all, it was really starting to annoy Miles. He didn't want anything he created affected by the Doctor, and while he was very thankful for being taken in by the genius, he was unhappy that such drastic measures were being used, especially when Miles was sure that, if he was given more resources and the self-proclaimed genius kept his hands out of Miles' robots' programs, he would've been able to capture the hedgehog when he had arrived at the Marble Ruins.

But with so few robots being released, and the Doctor editing every program with single minded idiocy, the hedgehog had been able to dodge the attacks with ease, especially the robots that the Doctor created.

Truth be told, Miles was just a few steps from quitting, but he had first decided to create one parting gift to the Doctor to repay him for taking in the fox. He had created a low voltage shock collar that, while not dangerous or even very painful, the fox was sure that it would curb the hedgehog's escape if he was told a lie about the strength of the collar. Miles planned to tell the hedgehog to curb his destructive ways, and then monitor him to ensure he followed the advice, or he would issue relatively uncomfortable shocks to the hedgehog and the bluff his way to tell the hedgehog that of he didn't comply he would send a shock that would kill him.

Of course, the collar wouldn't be able to issue anything above a basic irritating shock, which Miles had first tested upon himself. The last thing he wanted to do was to actually hurt the hedgehog.

The prototype for the device had just been finished and Miles couldn't wait to give it to the Doctor and leave the base.

Unfortunately things aren't always that simple.

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A few hours after Miles had completed his prototype shock collar, The Doctor had finally arrived at the new base from his ill-fated fight with Sonic. HE was in a suitable poor mood and Miles was cautious about approaching the Doctor, knowing all to well how angry he could become from the many times the young fox had caught the Doctor kicking and swearing when he'd messed up the programming on one of his robots.

However, he wasn't willing to wait for the genius to calm down. He wanted to leave now and was unwilling to waste time while the irritating genius got his act back together.

"Excuse me, Doctor Robotnik" Miles quietly called out as he entered the base's main hanger where the self proclaimed, and morbidly obese, genius sat steaming over Sonic's easy defeat over him. "I need to talk to you"

"What is it?" He snapped clearly irritated at being interrupted, the genius wasn't exactly in a cheerful mood. "Can't you see that I'm busy? I don't have time to waste talking to you"

Miles frowned at that, his tails dropping sadly to the ground "It's just that I though of a way to control Sonic after you capture him"

That actually managed to grab the Doctor's attention. He twisted around to look at the device that the young fox was holding up to show him, the prototype shock collar.

"It is designed to give his light shocks to scare him into doing the right thing and to stop hurting people" Miles told him helpfully as he handed the shock collar over to the portly genius "The idea is that I'd get one of the robots to knock him out, and while he's sleeping, I would put the collar on him. That way , whenever he does something bad, we cold shock him and he'd work out it's wrong. I think it's called shock therapy or something. I heard it mentioned when"

His voice fell down to almost a whisper as he hesitantly continued "...some kids said it was what I should do to stop being a freak"

However, the poor kit's admission was completely unimportant to the genius who didn't care about the fox, but instead wondered how the fox had managed to create such a valuable, and undoubtedly complex, item in a few hours without any aid. It was this discovery which alerted the Doctor to the fact that the young fox could well become his rival.

"Could you show me how it works?" The doctor asked as he held out the collar to his young ward.

Miles, seemingly unaware that the Doctor could do anything rash, slowly clipped the collar around himself and handed the controls to the Doctor. "I've tuned the electric shock controls with these buttons here to only give a light shock" He told the Doctor as he pointed out the various controls. "And this small button here is all that needs to be pressed to get the collar to shock it's wearer. I don't need to demonstrate that" He gestured to the back of the collar where it had locked onto his neck. "I've made it give a shock if it is removed without the yellow release button on the controller pressed. I'm still trying to work out the correct amount to shock someone asleep without hurting them, but I haven't found the right frequency"

The chubby Doctor studied the controls as silently changed the voltage amount on the controls, making sure that as he fiddled with it that the young fox wouldn't see what he was doing.

"I would like to see what the shock would do to someone" The Doctor told him slowly "To see whether it would stop someone from escaping or such"

"Err, I don-" Miles was cut off when the collar around his neck suddenly sparked to life, throwing a high voltage current through his young body, his muscles spasming at the sudden attack. He collapsed on the ground after the brief shock and lay there for a few moments, trying to catch his breath.

"Oh, sorry" The Doctor apologized "I forgot which button was to unlock the collar and which was to shock you"

Miles tiredly pulled himself to his feet, rubbing his neck where the collar had shocked his neck. He snatched the controls back off the Doctor and released the collar from his own neck, gingerly placing it on the bench beside him before doing anything else. "It should never have shocked me that hard. Either the device malfunctioned or the dial is too sensitive. Either way I'm going to have to fix it before I use it again"

The Doctor nodded "Devices which malfunction are unpredictable and mostly useless"

Miles nodded and, realizing that the Doctor was in a better mood than before, decided to inform the fleshy Doctor of his plans to leave "True, but the shock collar wasn't the main reason I came to talk to you. I have decided that our goals aren't equal. I wish to capture and reform the hedgehog. However, you want to kill him, and I cannot be a part of murder. I know he's murder many defenseless children, you've told me often enough, but I believe that there is some good in him and I'm sure that I can reform him, rather than kill him. So I hope you understand, but I will be leaving this base tomorrow morning"

This new news didn't please the Doctor whatsoever, however that didn't mean that he couldn't try and fix the problem. "You want to just give up, and let this blue demon kill more innocent children? How could you be so heartless, fox?" He shook his head and gazed at the small fox with a look of supreme disappointment.

Mile sighed "I never said I would give up" He told the obese Doctor quietly "I am going to go after the hedgehog myself and capture him and stop him from doing all the bad things you have told me about. I know that he can be helped, so I'm going to do it"

The Doctor, realizing that he could no longer convince the fox to stay, simply nodded and bid him a good night.

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That night The large Doctor stealthily crept into the young fox's quarters, and knelt over the fox. He cautiously pulled out the fox's prototype collar and gently placed it around the kit's neck, being cautious to avoid waking the fox and ruining the plan. Then he slowly pulled out a large needle, filled with a bright luminous liquid that was guaranteed to keep the fox asleep for a long period, incidentally the same liquid that had knocked him out when the Doctor had captured him originally.

"You will stay and help me" he whispered quietly to the fox "And if you won't do it willingly, i will force you"

The young kit, unaware of the events that had transpired, slept soundly on in his drug sustained sleep.

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**a/n:** Hey, Zachy, was that chapter a bit longer? Or not?

I've found that the whole swapping between the characters is actually limiting me, however it is a good limitation, ensuring that I do both Sonic's and Miles' stories.


	10. Chapter 10 Spring Yard Zone

**Different Beginnings**

**Disclaimer:**...

**A/n:** I hope you don't mind, but I changed the Spring Yard Zone slightly to try and keep some element of realism in the story (a giant pinball machine just didn't sound right, so it's a run down urban city).

**Asher Tye:** Just 22 minutes after I updated, you already had a review. That's scarily quick. Do you wait around your computer all day and night or something?

**Zachary W:**You will never be able to upset me. Oh, and I'm sorry to say that my updates may slow over the coming days (and they may grow shorter as well). I've really got to study and it is reducing the amount of time I can spend on this.

Thanks for the reviews/hits

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**Chapter 10 Spring Yard Zone**

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Sonic yawned tiredly as he entered the massive sprawling Urban city that had been nicknamed 'Spring Yard' for rather obvious reasons. Unlike the Marble Ruins, Sonic had actually picked up a brochure on the area before he ran blindly in. Apparently the area had been a large urban project that had been designed to give thousands of Mobians a new home after a natural disaster. Unfortunately, the builders hadn't exactly being reputable and the majority of the urban area had been declared structurally unsound.

This, of course, made the area potentially unliveable so very few Mobians lived in the area.

So why was Sonic there, you might ask?

Well, to put it plainly, The Urban area was the closest and cheapest area to the Marble Ruins and Sonic wanted to find somewhere cheap to stay the night before he continued searching for the illusive fox. He was tired, hungry and worn out, and he didn't feel like spending his cash on an expensive hotel room. Unfortunately for our blue wannabe-hero, he wasn't going to get a chance to rest for a long, long time.

The Urban city wasn't exactly what one would call well set out and Sonic was quickly discovering why few people lived there. Large segments of grated walkway would often end in unhelpful dead ends and there was very little signage around the area. And, unfortunately, this led to Sonic getting lost in the maze of misshaped walkways and gantries that sprawled out somewhat organically throughout the urban wasteland.

But not all bad news ends in poor endings, for it was for this reason that he came across the emerald.

It was no ordinary emerald. Sonic could tell that for sure as soon as he saw it. It was larger that his fist and glowed a bright yellow colour. As soon as he came near the mystical object, he could feel enormous amounts of pure energy flow through him, taking away all of his fatigue and tiredness. However as soon as he reached out and cautiously touched the glowing emerald, it faded and the euphoric feeling of energy flowing faded dramatically, but still supplying enough energy to keep him at his peak. He slowly picked up the stone, surprised at how heavy the object was, and gazed into the clear stone.

"What on earth are you?" Sonic asked himself quietly as he gazed in wonder at the object. Just holding the stone, he felt no energy released from it, and yet somehow, deep inside himself, he felt compelled to look after it and ensure that he kept it. He didn't know why it was so important. But he knew that if something happened to the emerald, or he lost it, then something terrible would happen. He didn't know why he felt such a strong feeling, all he knew was that he felt it and that it felt important.

Cautiously sliding the emerald into his quills, where he was sure that it would never be lost, he slowly gazed around the decrepit surroundings, hoping for some kind of guide to accommodation for the night. However, it seemed that something was guiding him instead, for as he slowly headed through the underbelly of the city, he came across a large locked door.

Normally, Sonic would've just left it as is and find another path through the maze of decrepit buildings; however the emerald seemed to be compelling him to stay on the path. And, for some unexplained reason, Sonic was unable to ignore it. He studied the door cautiously for a few moments; particularly its rusted condition and any present weak spots, then slowly walked back and prepared for a run up.

He rushed at the door and, at the last possible second, curled up into a ball, his razor sharp quills splaying out and tearing into the rusted metal. However, as soon as his quills began to tear at the rusted metal, he felt a strange feeling of euphoria shoot through him and he felt his spin increase, tearing through the metal almost instantly, and propelling him through a large collection of rusted pipes that hung beneath the Spring Yard Urban city.

Sonic uncurled from his role and continued running through the area, the emerald seeming to urge him to continue. Strangely, even though the hedgehog was running through such a dangerous area at such a high, and undoubtedly reckless, speed, he felt completely safe. He didn't know if it was because he was finally travelling at his favourite speed, or if the emerald was affecting him, but either way he wasn't worried in the least as the metallic walkways shuddered under his footfalls.

He rushed through the city's underbelly and finally arrived at the surface in one of the nicer areas of the urban city. Unfortunately, either through incredibly poor, or incredibly good, timing, it was right as Sonic appeared on the surface that a loud explosion sounded through the city as a large fireball erupted from one of the only decent housing estates. Sonic was forced to drop down and cover his head with his arms, to avoid the raining debris.

Silence fell onto the smoke laden urban city and Sonic slowly opened his eyes to see the hazy remains of the apartment complex. As the smoke slowly cleared Sonic slowly stood up, strangely eager to avenge the wanton destruction that had been taken place. There was only one person evil enough to have destroyed an entire building with so little regard for its inhabitants.

Through the smoke the shadowy, and rather round, figure of the evil Doctor appeared in his now customary flying craft, silently gliding over the destroyed remains of the apartment. Sonic felt his heart fill with rage as he watched the evil figure smile gleefully at the unnecessary destruction that could've easily killed someone, though, luckily, it appeared that few had ever called the complex home.

The obese Doctor seemed rather surprised to see the blue hedgehog standing just a short distance from his dramatic entrance, staring at him with fire in his eyes. However, the Doctor wasn't worried. One glance at the structure that the blue foe was standing on and all the evil genius' worries were solved. He could tell that the metallic grating that Sonic was standing on was terribly weak and a few well placed attacks would bring the entire structure down, pulling the hedgehog down to his death.

"So you found me, did you?" Doctor Robotnik called out the small enemy in his most infuriatingly irritating voice, filled with false pity. "I sure hope the whittle hedgehog didn't get any bo bos trying to find me. Not that they will matter anymore, for this is the end for you, you irritating hedgehog"

With those unambiguous words, he twisted the controls of the flying ship and shot straight down at the surprised hedgehog, a spike forming on the underside of the ship, pointing straight at the hedgehog.

Sonic quickly sprang into action and jumped to the side, dodging the attack, and then leaping straight back in a counter attack, forming into his curled up form, his spikes splaying out, as he flew through the air. He felt the wind stream through his quills, and a strange new found energy arose inside him, filling him with energy, feeding off his anger and clearing his mind.

His quills ripped through the underbelly of the flying craft, but it shot out of his path much too quickly for any major damage to be caused.

The hedgehog fell down onto the weak metal walkway beneath and was surprised to feel it start to give out beneath his weight. He jumped off it and onto the next one, and had barely enough time to roll to the side before another attack from the evil Doctor through sparks up as the massive spike tore through the metal surface, barely inches from where he lay.

Much quicker than even he though possible, Sonic jumped back onto his feet and threw himself back at the robotic attacker, again scoring a hit on the machine.

However, unlike the first attack, Sonic's attack hit a critical point on the ship and as he tore through the delicate machinery, spark flew out and slightly singed the attacking hedgehog's back. He pushed himself away and as he fell down from the craft, smoke started bellowed out of the foot long gash that he had created in the side of the craft. The smoke billowed everywhere, clouding his vision, until he could barely see anything other than generalised shapes. Through the haze he saw the flying craft, carrying its evil occupant, speed away and eventually disappear behind the many buildings that littered the area.

The smoke soon cleared and Sonic found himself standing alone in the dusty remains of the abandoned apartment complex. He moved to sit down, but he as suddenly struck by the strange feeling of euphoria again. He reached up to his quills and drew out the pale yellow emerald. It seemed to be pulsing slowly in his hand, urging him to move.

Following the unspoken command, Sonic slowly walked past the destroyed complex and along the rusted walkways. He felt himself be guided along the path, he wasn't sure where he was going, but the emerald seemed to be guiding him.

So he was going to follow it. Besides it wasn't like he had anything better to do, and even if he did, he was sure that he would've dropped it for the emerald.

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**a/n:** The bad news is that I finally hit a roadblock while writing this chapter. But the good news is that I've just gotten past it and I now have a clear path for the story to continue...sorta. To be honest, the story is kinda leading ME along, in much the same way the emerald in the story is leading Sonic.


	11. Chapter 11 Miles' Master

**Different Beginnings**

**A/n:** I'm really sorry about the delay, studying and everything has gotten in the way

**Asher Tye:** He may have found one emerald, but will he be able to find them all.

Thanks for the reviews/hits

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**Chapter 11 Miles' Master**

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Tails awoke to the sound of water slowly dripping nearby and machinery noisily working in the background. He slowly opened his eyes and was surprised to see absolutely nothing but darkness. Yawning loudly, he tiredly tried to pull himself to his feet, but before he moved an inch up from the ground, his leg was painfully withheld by a metal brace. Feeling around, he quickly realised that he was chained tightly to the ground, the chains already beginning to painfully rub with skin raw through his fur.

Investigating the matter further, he realised that his legs were held flat on the ground in a brace, while his wrists were attached to a single point behind himself with short lengths of chain. Feeling along the chains, he realised that he was completely stuck. The braces and restraints were all tightly locked and there was no way he could physically remove a single restraint.

Sighing, he lent back against the wall, twisting his neck to try and loosen the muscles. He frowned as he slowly came to the realisation that he was wearing a collar. He nervously moved one of his chained hands up to his neck and felt along the smooth collar, realising almost instantly that it was his electric shock collar.

"I knew I couldn't trust him" Miles muttered to himself miserably, as he rested against the damp stone wall. "And now that stupid choice has me chained up and waiting for the human to come down to me and either cause me great harm, or finish me off. I wish I wasn't held captive by that violent idiot"

The poor fox, didn't have time to further speculate on the issue, however, because as soon as he uttered the bare insult, lights suddenly lite up the area around him. The young fox recoiled back in both surprise and horror when he saw the evil Doctor standing just feet away from him. Miles quickly glanced around the room and immediately saw exactly how much trouble he was in.

The kit was chained in a large naturally occurring cave, the walls damp with water, which seemed to be deep underground; well he figured it was deep underground since there was no light source apart from the electrical ones surrounding him and the Doctor.

"Let me go" Miles demanded as soon as his eyes had adjusted to the new bright surroundings. "I haven't done anything against you, heck I even made you all those robots, so I've more than paid any debt that I owe you for looking after me. So let me go"

The Doctor slowly walked up the scare fox, his mouth twisted into a sarcastic sneer "I think not. Now, here's the deal" He pulled out a small remote control from his pocket, which Miles instantly recognised as his collar's remote. "You will do exactly what I say, when I say it, otherwise...well"

There was silence between the two for just a moment, before the Doctor's finger 'slipped' and the fox let out a scream of pure pain as the two metal plates in the collar suddenly charged up and released an enormous spike of electricity through the weak captives body, shooting along all of his nerves and lighting them up to their max. With another, second, strangled cry, the poor fox collapsed and fell into an uncomfortable sleep. His body still spasming from the attack.

The Doctor frowned and fixed an angry eye at the spasming fox. "I'll teach you for falling asleep during a demonstration" He muttered to himself as he lowered the voltage on the controller.

The fox screamed as the second electrical shock threw him awake, his body acting on automatic and struggling to escape from the pain, flailing its limbs against the chains, with little result. However, the charge soon stopped and the tired fox slowly raised his eyes to look at the Doctor, his body shaking in fright at the mere though at how much more pain his young body could soon be experiencing.

"Let's get straight onto the rules, shall we?" The fox's tormentor began, his fingers still idly playing with the remote. "You will do what I say, when I say, and you will not question me. If I tell you to create a machine to blow up a city, you will do it. If I tell you to build a robot to kill someone, then it had better kill them. I don't care if you think that you can do something better, I am the on in charge here, and if you don't want me to 'accidentally' press that button again, you will do as you're told. Or, I might just throw you out in front of that hedgehog, I'm sure I've told you enough about how dangerous that hedgehog is by now."

"Just remember that from now on I am your master, and you are my slave. If you say anything out of turn, or walk anywhere without permission, or if you merely get on my nerves, expect to be punished severely for it" The sadistic Doctor slowly smirked at the small fox "Do you understand?"

Miles slowly raised his eyes back to his new master "I-I d-do, M-Master" he stuttered, his mind to worked up in fright to properly manage talking. "I will not fail you, Master"

The evil genius just chuckled, then suddenly grew serious "Get up, you have work to do" His foot suddenly shot out and impacted painfully against the poor fox's ribs.  
Miles, worried about disappointing his master, and getting more punishment, tried to get up but was unable to do so due to his restrains. Unfortunately, as soon as he tried to inform his Master that he couldn't, a shot of electricity shot through his weak body, bringing him crashing back down to the ground. Struggling to remain conscious, the fox felt the chains around him be released and he soon was struggling to get up onto his feet. Eventually he stood before his master, his body swaying uneasily as he tried to retain his balance in his weakened state.

He felt a metallic hand roughly grab hold of his shoulder and lead his weak body along the uneven cave floor.

"Now here's what you are going to do for me" The evil Doctor began as one of his robotic minions led Miles along behind him "I need you to create a whole lot of those useful robots you were telling me about. I need you to make twenty-five BurraBots, six Undies and about twelve Jaws. And I expect them done in a few hours. If they aren't done completely and working in the correct fashion, you are going to have an extremely uncomfortable stay here. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Master. Crystal Clear." Miles told him quietly, wondering how on earth he was going to complete two days work in a few hours.

The young fox didn't waste any time complaining to his master about the time limit. He knew that any arguments would end in pain and a shorter limit, so he didn't even bother. He merely rushed over to the multitude of robotic components provided and began construction, mentally forcing his body to ignore his tired state.

Hours past and Miles was started to sweat profusely, realising that he wouldn't be able to finish the robot before his master came. The tired fox rushed as quickly as he could, throwing the components together, he had no time to care whether they worked completely correctly, and rapidly tried to get the robot working before his time ran out.

He quickly attached the large collection of robots to the large generator to begin charging the batteries and barely had time to turn it on before his master arrived and quickly began an inspection of the robotic fighters.

Miles sat down, exhausted, and allowed his body to collapse against a wall to conserve energy and allow his tired muscles to recharge.

The evil Doctor didn't even check on the fox. He just barked out orders to one of his minions robots to check the robots for flaws and, once the robot had confirmed that they were all completed to a satisfactory degree, turned them all on and sent the robot fighters out to face the blue hedgehog that his sensors had detected only a short while ago.

"With this weakling helping me" The Evil Doctor chuckled "I will finally be able to defeat any enemy, especially that irritating blue hedgehog"

And with those sweet parting words, he turned back to his captive, flicked the remote controls again and chuckled as the fox cried out in pain as the high voltage engulfed his body. The shock eventually released the fox into an unconscious state.

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**a/n:** I've just noticed that whenever I write a story, I favour using Imperial measurements, even though where I live we use metric. I guess I'm favouring certain audiences.

Oh, and a few reviews would be nice.


	12. Chapter 12 The Underwater Labyrinth

**Different Beginnings**

**A/n:** it's 10:40 at night and I'm tired. I had to rewrite the beginning of this chapter three times. It was difficult to imply the right thing. I really hope it worked out right. Yawn, now to upload this and go to sleep.

**Asher Tye:** Hello my constant reviewer. Of course the Doctor's annoyed, Sonic's rather dangerous and the evil genius is having no luck in any of his attempts to defeat him...I like that word: "doed", I guess 'did' wasn't quite good enough.

**Chao2:** Hello new reviewer. I can't really think of anything else to say except, thanks for the review...and the compliment that I assume was exaggeration (either that or you've never really read any good professional books).

Thanks for the reviews/hits

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**Chapter 12 The Underwater Labyrinth**

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Sonic may have been still being led by the emerald, but that didn't mean that he minded. However, this soon changed when he looked at the path ahead of him, or rather, the cave ahead of him. All it took was one look at the dripping water and Sonic had made a choice. There was no way he would ever be going into that dark tunnel where the only light provided would be from the mysteriously glowing crystal in his hand. Unfortunately for the blue hedgehog, as soon as he made the choice to not go in, fate was already working against his choice.

He glanced down at the emerald again, as if to ask it why it wanted him to go here of all places, when he realised that he was staring at an empty palm and that the emerald, that he could've sworn he was holding securely, was rolling down the steeply slopped tunnel and about to disappear off into the darkness. Worried that he would loose both the emerald and his only source of light, and would be lost in the pitch black caves, Sonic quickly took off after the rolling emerald, racing across the slick underground rocks and the sandy surface of the cave floor.

Unfortunately, while he was quickly catching up to the emerald, he saw something ahead that filled his mind with horror. Off, barely a few hundred metres down the shadowy cave, a massive pit of blackness appeared in the middle of the path, right in the way of the emerald. Sonic 2quickly picked up his pace and shot along the dangerous terrain much quicker than he would have ever though was even possible, and yet for some strange reason it still seemed to be a sane activity in such a dangerous environment. He was just feet away from the drop off when he threw out his legs into a slide, managing to grasp the emerald in his out stretched hand. He threw out his other hand and dug his nails into the rough terrain, managing to stop just inches from the hole.

Breathing a sigh of relief at the close call, Sonic slowly stood back up and looked back at where he'd come from. He couldn't even make out a single point of light in either direction. He slowly lowered his eyes back to the emerald, resting peacefully in his hand. "Where on Mobius are you leading me?" He asked the pale yellow emerald.

Naturally, the emerald didn't respond and Sonic was forced to conclude that whatever it was doing, it had an important reason for doing so, and it was his duty to follow through the unspoken instructions, though where he had gleamed the concept of duty wasn't even known to him.

Sighing, Sonic slowly continued through the vast cave system, making sure to give the deep hole a wide berth, and continued exploring the underground maze, hoping that he would find something that would either lead him, or help him soon.

Barely a minute passed before Sonic managed to stumble upon something that would do the exact opposite of both of those hopes.

He had been walking slowly through the cave, unwilling to run over such dangerous terrain, when a loud grating sound had suddenly filled the cave around him, reverberating off the walls and making it impossible for him to work out where the loud disruption was coming from. However he didn't have had any time to react; he had barely slowed his speed before a large robot that looked somewhat like a mole, shot out of the ground before the surprised hedgehog.

Sonic, acting on complete instinct jumped through the air, curling up as he did, and couldn't help grinning as he felt his spines tear through the robot, splitting it down its centre. He uncurled and landed smoothly on the ground and glanced back at the destroyed robot. He slowly turned and walked back to the destroyed foe, and was surprised to see that it looked...well cute in a way.

Sonic frowned, he didn't know why, but the robot just didn't look like something that the evil megalomaniac, that he'd fought previously, would have made. Shrugging, he carefully moved away from the robot, unable to determine whether he'd actually destroyed the machine completely in the pale light emitted from the emerald.

He felt the emerald draw him away from the fallen foe and along the tunnel, though the feeling was still something he couldn't describe. Nodding silently, he followed the emeralds demand and continued his way through the labyrinth.

However, he soon came across something that made all thoughts of continuing through the darkness immediately disappear.

"Oh, heck no" Sonic told the emerald as he gazed into the inky darkness of a large pool of water that covered his only way to continue. "There is no way I am EVER going to go into that crap. I can't even swim..."

However his demands were quickly forgotten as an intense feeling of euphoria filled his body. Forgetting all of his reservations about the pool of water, he slowly took a breath and jumped down into the darkness, not noticing the emerald glow brighter to provide more light in the murky water.

The hedgehog slowly made his way underwater and was shocked to spot a small robotic fish flying straight for him. Moving with a speed that he didn't know was even possible underwater, Sonic dodged the small metallic fish, while also managing to land a blow on the tale of the small robot, breaking the delicate machinery, sending the robotic fish to the floor in an uncontrolled descent.

Sonic paid the fallen robot little attention as he raced by; pleasantly surprised that he could still run so well underwater.

Unfortunately, it was by this point that Sonic was starting to feel rather faint as his slowly dwindling air supply slowly ran out. He quickly moved through the murky water and forced his way out and back to the surface into a drier part of the labyrinth.

Shaking the water out from between his quills, Sonic quickly scanned his new surroundings and, as soon as he felt the strange urge to move, started travelling down the new path.

He hadn't been travelling far before his foot caught on a hole, throwing him off balance and taking his eyes away from the path before him as he glanced down at his feet to check his footing. Unfortunately as soon as Sonic raised his eyes back to the path in front of him, he instantly saw that he was barely a few feet from running straight into a wall.

He threw out his hands and dug his feet in deep in an attempt to stop, unfortunately he was going to fast and hit the wall at quite a considerable speed. However, that doesn't mean that nothing positive happened. His impact knocked a small rock shaped item and it fell down and landed in his lap.

On contact, a sudden burst of light filled Sonic's eyes and, even after he closed his eyes, all he could see was bright light. However, as soon as it appeared, it disappeared. Cautiously, Sonic opened his eyes and gazed down at the strange item in his hands, and was surprised to see that it was another emerald, this time glowing a pale blue.

He slowly moved the pale yellow emerald next to its twin and they started to glow brighter, as they drew closer. He moved them away and their glow faded back to normal.

"What on Mobius are these?" Sonic asked himself as he gazed at the two mystical stones held in his hands.

Unfortunately, Sonic didn't have much more time to speculate on the emeralds and their origin before he was disturbed by a large glowing sphere appeared with some smaller robotic balls span around it, apparently protecting it. It seemed perfectly safe, until one of the four orbiting spheres suddenly shot out at the hedgehog. Sonic, with a speed only he could manage, quickly jumped to his feet and managed to dodge the attack, rolling to the side as the metal sphere impacted against the wall with a loud thud, embedding itself quite a few inches into the wall.

Before the strange glowing ball could attack again, Sonic started running along the tunnel, ducking underneath the enemy to dodge the second and third attacks. Unfortunately, it seemed that the robots were starting to get organised, for as soon as the hedgehog had gone around one of the dark caves corners, and he found himself being attacked on two sides by the same strange robot that he'd seen before.

He quickly ran out from between his two attackers and couldn't help laughing when the two robots ran smack dab into each other and obliterated one another. However, he couldn't stay to chuckle. Another robot, this time one of the small robotic fish, began chasing him. Sonic, seeing that he would have difficult attacking the pesky enemy started running as quickly as he could through the area.

He quickly ducked underneath a crop of rock and chuckled when he heard the small robotic fish smash straight into the rock, shattering on impact.

He dashed through the dark tunnel, barely able to make out anything further than a few hundred feet away.

SO you could imagine his surprise when suddenly the infamous flying craft, that he had attacked so many times already, appeared before the hedgehog and, on spotting the hedgehog, began to quickly start flying away and up a sheer cliff face.

Sonic heard a loud crash and the sound or running water roared through the rock tunnel. Glancing behind himself, he saw the murky water suddenly rush towards him. Wasting no time, Sonic quickly dashed up to the end of the tunnel and started scrambling up the rock face, jumping from ledge to ledge, trying to stay ahead of the rapidly rising water. He felt his feet slip on the slick rocks and he was starting to panic as the water was soon rushing up to his waist.

Sonic was starting to panic. The water was up to his neck and was still climbing faster that he was. Soon it was over his head and the only thing between him and drowning, was a lung full of air. He rushed faster, trying to get up the rock walls quicker.

His lungs were burning and he was starting to feel faint. Luckily, as his view started to cloud over, he suddenly felt himself be hit with a massive wave of energy.

He suddenly shot up the wall, filled with energy, his legs and arms, forgetting their tiredness and forcing the tired hedgehog up the rock face and finally out of the water. Sonic quickly gasped in lungful of air to try and regain his breathe as he tiredly looked around the room. Of course, the Doctor had taken off by now and Sonic quickly realised that he wasn't going to catch up to the evil genius today.

Yawning, the hedgehog leant against a rock wall and closed his eyes to sleep, allowing his body to take over and send him into a peaceful slumber.

The two emeralds remained glowing in his hands.

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**a/n: **I've always wondered how Sonic could see so much underground in this zone, the emerald seems to be a fitting solution.

Please review.


	13. Chapter 13 Subtle Disobedience

**Different Beginnings**

**A/n:** I'm sorry this chapter took so long. Studying is really getting in the way of the story (though it could possibly be the other way around); I've just realized that this is now my longest story, yay. It's also my quickest growing story, it's also got the best plot (well the most developed, at least), and it's the best written so far as well. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that the speed's going to drop a bit since I'm getting close to the HSC and it's kinda important.

**Asher Tye:** I know how hard that last bit in Labyrinth zone is. I think I was on my fifteenth attempt before I actually made it all the way through. Anyway, I'm glad that the story is still interesting to you and I really hope that this chapter is as good as the others

I wonder what happened to Zachy boy. So much for "I will review every chapter". He he.

Thanks for the review/hits everyone

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**Chapter 13 Subtle Disobedience**

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It was late at night and the many inhabitants of the massive sprawling city, that was known as Starlight City, had long since turned in for the night, their cars silently sitting in their parking spaces, their high-tech concrete and metal highways completely devoid of traffic, their lights low and their streets empty. Starlight City was a city of absolutely amazing project. It was originally designed to be the ultimate city in terms of architecture and safety. The highways had been installed to reduce accidents and the moving walkways had been specifically installed in a special array to ensure quick and efficient travel. All in all, the city was an absolute engineering marvel.

However, it is what was hidden below that is of most interest to us, for deep below the surface of this wonderful metropolitan city, Miles was slowly awakening from his shock induced sleep. His head may have still been pounding painfully from the shock, but that didn't mean that his mind wasn't working at full speed. As soon as his eyes tiredly opened his mind was already processing his surroundings and throwing out the inevitable conclusion.

"Another day, another base" Our young fox muttered tiredly as he wearily surveyed his new surroundings, yet another base that had obviously been thrown together at the last minute with failing security and poorly planned layouts. Miles slowly shook the sleep from himself then tiredly pulled himself to his feet. Unlike yesterday, Miles had no plans to escape, he knew very well just how trigger happy the evil Doctor was with the shock collar, and he knew exactly how little his body could take.

At the moment his main priority was to try and sabotage the Doctor's plans without being caught. He had realised that the Doctor was obviously not the good guy in whatever was happening and that, while the hedgehog may not necessarily be good either, the Doctor was already a threat to quite a lot of Mobians. His robots were no longer programmed to just attack the blue hedgehog and Miles had actually seen data logs of ordinary citizens being injured by his own creations, an activity which thoroughly disgusted him.

So Miles had quickly started coming up with other plans to negate the Doctor's power. He'd already forced a virus into the Unidus that would remove any attack parameters and would keep them relatively safe, so long as the hedgehog didn't try to attack the glowing sphere, an attack that would injure both bot and hedgehog.

He'd also managed to build some completely useless robots that would do absolutely nothing except explode if someone came close, and he was even going to ensure that they only blew up near the correct blue hedgehog. All in all, Miles had managed to ensure that both types of robots that the Doctor had placed out to attack the citizens, wouldn't really do anything except hinder the dangerous hedgehog.  
Right at this point in time he was designing the robotic droids for their next base, though not necessarily starting the manufacturing process.

He'd already designed a bot the would dispose of the hedgehog easily called ton-ton which would wait for the cocky hedgehog at the top of a slope, and when the hedgehog runs past, the robot would drop bombs after the hedgehog, blowing up on impact with the hedgehog. Miles knew that in all likelihood the Doctor would never actually want any of the fox's designs and would only be able to lightly punish the fox. Miles was sure that if he gave the impression that he was trying very hard and his robots were functioning completely, and just happened to not work completely effectively, then the Doctor would just be forced to assume that Miles just wasn't as skilled as he really was and would only punish him a little bit, rather than a whole lot if he realised that Miles was acting that way on purpose.

However, even with everything going well, and the shock collar being only used on him at low levels, Miles kept on feeling worse and worse. He was sick of being captured. He was sick of being hurt and he was sick of his skills being used to harm another person. Miles was no fool, he knew that he was slowly losing his sanity working for the ruthless Doctor, and it was for this reason he was rebelling against his given instructions subtly. He rebelled to remain in control of a small part of his life, and follow his master's orders to avoid punishment.

His life had quickly become difficult and he was already tired and exhausted from the late nights and large build times he would now be forced to work on. The doctor was demanding more and more of his robots to defend areas and attack so many people.

Right at this point in time, he had just finished completing a new modification to the Unidus' to make them even weaker, and it was at this point that his Master, the now infamous Doctor Robotnik, came into the room and announced his presence by a quick shock to the fatigued fox who couldn't help spasming as he was shocked for perhaps the eight time that day.

"Well, my freak slave" The Doctor announced to Miles as the poor fox tiredly pulled himself back up to his feet, a wince passing through the fox's features at the mention of 'freak'. "It's time for you to begin work on my craft, it needs an effective weapon and I'd better now have something stupidly useless"

The Doctor leaned low over the captive fox "I don't want to have to do what I did in Labyrinth. My craft had better be able to defeat that evil hedgehog"

Miles nodded slowly, he'd expected this conversation and was extremely pleased to realise that the Doctor had decided to blame his own poor planning than the deliberately slow work that Miles had done to avoid creating anything that the Doctor could use to attack more civilians. "I am currently working on a device that will launch bombs down at the hedgehog, allowing you to remain in the air out of his normal striking range. However, to ensure they blow up correctly, you will still be limited to a height of about fifty feet. That would ensure that the bombs will wait the correct delay before exploding, maximising their blast radius"

The Doctor frowned at Miles' news. "That is not was good as I wanted. You know what that means don't you." The poor fox didn't have anytime to react before his body was thrown through a violent shock, his body collapsing to the ground heavily as soon as it was over "I will punish you for the rest when you are finished"

Miles tiredly nodded to his master. "I will improve the design, Doctor"

And with that tiredly answered question, the Doctor left the room, leaving Miles to work.

The fox was soon working on the bomb deployment system, ensuring that the bombs would be stored in the correct manner and would only explode at the correct time. Miles also altered the time delay on the bombs, adding precious extra seconds. He wanted to ensure that, regardless of whoever the hedgehog was, he wouldn't be harmed by something Miles created. So he was making sure that the delay would be long enough to allow the hedgehog to escape, and short enough so that the Doctor wouldn't suspect that Miles had messed up on purpose.

It took a while, but eventually Miles was glad that the system was working flawlessly. The only problem remaining is that Miles had to figure out a way to allow the hedgehog to attack the Doctor, and hopefully hold him off long enough to allow Miles to escape. Luckily, Miles quickly worked out an effective way to 'accidentally' give the hedgehog a way to fight back.

It wouldn't be easy, but Miles was sure that he could do it. SO he quickly set to work, designing and building strange ramps. Once he had finished the simple designs, he ordered a few of the useless burrabots , that couldn't be used in the city due to the use of concrete in the majority of the city's surfaces, to take the ramps and levers up to the surface and place them in a specific point.

"And with these set up the hedgehog will be reasonably safe from the bombs" Miles muttered to himself as he went back to designing the large array of robots that the Doctor would soon be sending to protect their next base in Scrap Brain, though the Doctor said it was merely a precaution of cause. "The hedgehog should be able to get a few hits on the Doctor, though probably not enough to do much damage. But it would be enough to distract both of them enough to give me a chance to escape. This is going to be perfect"

And with his plan implemented and working smoothly, Miles allowed himself a small smile.

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**a/n: **This chapter almost wrote itself. I replayed Sonic and managed to finish it…with only two emeralds (Thank god for the quick save/load feature in the emulator, On the Sega Mega Drive I sucked at it)

Please, please, review. The author loves it when he gets lots of random reviews in his inbox.


	14. Chapter 14 Starlight City

**Different Beginnings**

**A/n:** This story is getting really fun to write. I have Sonic fighting for a reason he doesn't completely understand, I have Miles trying to stop his skills from harming others, and I have an evil genius whose motives are still completely unknown.

**Asher Tye:** Another rapid fire review, this time it took you 27 minutes. You are getting pretty good at that. And, don't worry; Miles will understand who Sonic is...eventually.  
**petite-dreamer:** Hey. You're a new reviewer. I'm just saying hello and thanks for giving me a review. Those remind me to work and make the chapters come quicker (subtle hint)  
**Zachary W:** You're absolutely right, that bet would be stupid...but you're probably going to be right. I'm glad that you're still reading the story and I hope you continue to like it.  
**Pokelad:** Miles may be planning his escape, but this story is not over yet.

Awesome, I got four reviews in one chapter. I love it when I get reviews.

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**Chapter 14 Starlight City **

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In Sonic's opinion, Starlight city didn't completely suck. Sure, its roads were always curving in ways that made travel irritating. Heck, to him the city didn't even look any good to him. All that the city had was concrete and metal, nothing interesting, just clinical surfaces with little regard to colour or life. However, that didn't mean that he found the place to be completely crap. The city was well made, after all, and as soon as he entered he saw that a lot of people obviously worked to keep everything working correctly and efficiently, though he never actually got to see any of them doing said work. Still, he admired the amount of work put into keeping the place running; he just didn't really see the point of it all.

However, he had to admit, that while the roads did curve a bit too much, they were very smooth and much easier to run along when they were straight. And there was nothing he liked more than smooth roads that were easy to run on.

But that wasn't why he was in this large city, the real reason being something even he had yet to fully realise. It was late at night and Sonic was starting to get tired, or he would've been getting tired if it wasn't for the four emeralds he currently had hidden in his quills. Yes, that's right, four. He'd managed to find the third green emerald while travelling to the city, and he had found the fourth, this time pale orange, when he had first entered the city.

He still didn't know why they were so important. In actual fact, he had little idea why they mattered in any way, heck he had no idea what they were even called. All he knew was that the emeralds kept him alert and awake for a much longer period than he imagined, and that he needed to keep the ones he had found safe, while he followed the evil genius in his mission to rescue the kidnapped fox.

At this particular moment in time, Sonic was exploring the vast high tech city, wondering why the emeralds had led him here, of all places. However, he was soon going to find out.

It didn't take him long to see that the evil Doctor had beaten him to the city, there were heaps of strange robots everywhere. There were these strange metallic domed ones that blew up when ever he came close, one almost blew up underneath him, but his speed managed to get him out of the bomb blast. There were also more of those strange glowing orbiting things that he'd last seen in the underwater Labyrinth. However these ones seemed to be really lazy, rather than seek and attack him like their predecessors did, these newer ones just hung around certain parts of the city and didn't seem to be bothered to attack at all, almost as if they forgot to.

The next to useless attackers, and the next to pointless attacks, created a strange area for Sonic to explore. Unlike the other times he'd being after the Doctor, his current situation hadn't been anywhere near as dangerous and was, as strange as it seemed, rather relaxing.

Of course, as soon as he got into such a relaxed state, Sonic quickly found out that just because the robots were practically harmless, that didn't mean that their creator was anywhere near as benevolent.

He'd been inspecting some strange see-saw style metal ramps that had been apparently left around after some construction site when the attack happened.

The attack was completely unexpected, and completely over the top, a style that Sonic was quickly beginning to associate with the Doctor. He barely had time to jump out of the way, before a large bomb fell out of the air and landed where he'd just been standing. Luckily for Sonic, the bomb didn't explode immediately, so the hedgehog had a chance to get away before the bomb explodes, spraying nowhere near as much shrapnel as Sonic expected.

Of course, Sonic wasn't exactly safe where he was currently standing either. Barely a quarter of a second passed before the hedgehog was forced to again jump out of the way of another bomb before it also exploded. However, in his haste, Sonic had accidentally jumped onto one of the strange metal see-saws, and a third bomb landed on the other side of it. Sonic didn't move, unsure of where to dive to avoid the next bomb, his indecision further hampered by a fourth bomb dropped where he'd been planning to jump.

His millisecond hesitation allowed the bomb to explode, forcing its end of the seesaw down into the ground, the other end propelling Sonic into the air. Sonic, taking advantage of the situation flew through the air and curled up into what would soon be known as the Spin Dash.

He scored a direct hit on the side of the craft, his body spinning too slowly to actually cut like he had done so previously. However the attack did manage to force the metal panel to buckle, slightly hampering the bomb deployment. However, when the hedgehog landed back down onto the ground, he quickly realised that whatever damage he'd caused, it hadn't been enough to stop the attacks.

Thinking quickly, Sonic jumped onto the ramp see-saw devices again. The lucky hedgehog was fortunate enough to have another bomb land on the other side, and soon found himself flying through the air, this time managing to use the jump to give himself a reasonable spin. Luckily, his spin was fast enough that on contact with the craft, his quills actually dug in deep.

He felt the metal of the Doctor's flying Craft tear as his sharpened quills dug into the weak underbelly of the craft again, however, instead on falling back to earth like he had every other time, Sonic grabbed a hold of one of the stumpy wings of the craft, using his own momentum to land behind the Doctor.

"Get off my craft right now, you stupid hedgehog" The Doctor exclaimed loudly, trying to push the hedgehog off, and managing to not succeed.

"How about, no?" Sonic answered smugly "I don't know why you're here, or heck, even what you are trying to do. But I do know two things. One, you kidnapped a fox, and two; you are becoming majorly dangerous to everyone. And I think it's time I stopped you before you manage to cause any more problems"

Reaching past the large bumbling fool, the speedy hedgehog twisted the controls and quickly pulled the craft into a descent, not a controlled descent, but a descent all the same. The duo hit the concrete hard and a large split formed in the bodywork of the craft.

"You're going to pay for that" Doctor Robotnik complained as he surveyed the damage, paying absolutely no attention to the hedgehog behind him "Do you have any idea how hard it is to repair custom panels like that"

Sonic couldn't resist rolling his eyes at the idiotic comment "Look, can we just try and sort this out once and for all?"

"No" The evil genius answered simply before the craft suddenly took to the sky, the sudden movement knocking Sonic onto the pavement below, leaving him to just watch as the Doctor made his getaway. Sighing loudly, Sonic slowly sat up and was surprised when he found a fellow Mobian holding out their hand to help him stand. Smiling, Sonic took the hand and was soon on his feet.

"Thank you" The female Mobian cat thanked him "You managed to protect our homes from that evil man. He put robots everywhere and they were starting to attack people, but when you showed up they became rather weak and as soon as that man left, all the robots stopped working." The cat pulled him into a hug and kissed his cheek in thankfulness "Thank you for freeing us"

Sonic, surprised that they were thanking him for something he would've done anyway, just shrugged "It's all in a hero's work" He told her. "Now, I'd better go and try to keep the Doctor from causing any more harm"

As he turned to go, the Mobian cat spotted one of the emeralds sitting in his quills. "What are they?" She asked carefully, hoping that she wasn't offending her hero by asking.

Sonic, surprised at the conversation, but all to eager to entertain his grateful friend, turned and pulled out the light yellow one "You want to know what these are?" Sonic told her as he reached into his quills to grab one of the emeralds.

The emerald glowed slightly as Sonic pulled it out, but neither the hedgehog nor the cat, paid the unnatural any attention. "Well they appear to be these really powerful emeralds with large amounts of power, and I've been tasked with finding them all and keeping them safe from Doctor Robotnik" Right at that second, a flash of light surrounded them and Sonic felt something shoot through the air and land in his outstretched palm, next to the yellow emerald. The light disappeared and they were both surprised to see a faintly glowing grey emerald sitting in Sonic's hand beside the pale yellow emerald.

"That, that's my emerald" the cat muttered, her eyes looking at the large hole in her pocket. "Look, you just keep that strange emerald. I found it a week ago in the trash and...well just take it as a gift for saving the city"

"Sure" Sonic frowned slightly "Well, I've got to leave now and try to get rid of this evil idiot before he does something really stupid. I've gotta run" And with that parting sentiment, Sonic disappeared from the cat's sight in a flash of blue.

"Goodbye" The cat whispered to herself, as the blue trail slowly faded to nothing.

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**a/n: **That ending was really hard to write. This chapter was actually a lot harder to write than previous ones. Certain parts flowed well (the fight, the intro, etc.) while other parts just screwed up on their second rewrite (the exploration bit). I don't even think I properly explained that Miles had been the one to leave the see-saw ramp things for Sonic to use. Oh well, the next chapter is sure to flow well, I have a clear plan for that chapter, unlike the hazy concept I had for this one.

Oh, and can I get some more reviews. That would be great. They don't even have to be on anything relevant.


	15. Chapter 15 Jailbreak

**Different Beginnings**

**A/n:** Yay, a new chapter. This one was weird to write. I had one direction I wanted to go, and another it wanted to go, so it was harder to direct.

It seems that I am hitting a bit of a dry spot in this story, making it a bit hard to write...so if anyone has any ideas, tell me (I probably won't use any of them since I already have a direction to go in, but I work best when distracted...which makes total sense)

**Zachary W:** Well done for being my quickest reviews yet (your fifteen minutes beat Asher Tye's twenty-one for the previous chapter) , and it was also the most irrelevant.  
**petite-dreamer: **It might've been 6:50 in the morning where you are, but it was 9:50 at night where I am.  
**Pokelad:** Where exactly would a likely place be? And about the links to Sonic X... um, yes they did...but...yeah, that's kinda where I'm stealing the idea from  
**Fox2Tails:** Yes, another reviewer, and hopefully an interested reader.

Hang on, where was Asher Tye?

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**Chapter 15 Jailbreak **

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Miles didn't waste any time, as soon as his Master had left; he was already making preparations to leave. He was a smart fox and he knew that what he really needed was some way to mediate any issues he had, starting with the hedgehog. First things first, he had to ensure that the hedgehog wouldn't want to kill him, and for that he needed some kind of bribe. Luckily, the perfect item was sitting just a few feet away; unfortunately it was contained in a high security system designed by Doctor Robotnik. However, that didn't really mean much to Miles, the Doctor may have been good at mass producing robots, but when it came to security designs, well, to put it lightly, he sucked.

He quickly pried open the access panel on the security cage and began work on the intricate wiring within, hoping that the Doctor hadn't bothered to build it properly. He quickly thumbed through the different wires, cursing slightly when he saw that none of them were labelled or even coloured, forcing him to trace each of the hundreds of wires by hand individually.  
"Typical" He muttered to himself "Security through crappy design"  
Finally, after twenty painfully long minutes had passed, more than five times the amount that Miles was originally going to give to this task, he managed to open the security cell and the valuable item was soon sitting in his hand.

As soon as his palm closed around the valuable item, he quickly prepared to leave. He returned everything back to the way it was suppose to be, in the hope that his master wouldn't immediately realise that Miles had done anything, and then got to work on the security doors on the base. All the young fox needed to do would be to quickly disable the security locks and leave before the Doctor returned.

The security here was much greater that anywhere else and it took Miles quite a while to even comprehend the system, almost half an hour in fact. It would've taken much longer, but luckily he'd spent quite a lot of time studying the hardware in secret and knew enough to understand how the Doctor would've programmed the locks. So, barely an hour since the Doctor had left, Miles was out of his cell and sneaking through the varying passageways, making sure that he stayed out of site of any of the cameras that pitted the walls of the Doctor's establishment.

The young fox finally reached the end of the Doctor's outlying base and he truly believed that nothing was going to stop him now. Well, that's what he though before he ran straight into the frowning, and still slightly smoking, figure of his Master.

"Trying to escape, are we?" The Doctor sarcastically asked, his finger poised threateningly over the collar's remote control "You know what I said would happen if you tried to escape"

"No, Master" Miles quickly pleaded with the Doctor, his voice wavering at the mere though of another shock "I was...coming to help you"

"I doubt it" The Doctor answered simply as he studied the remote "I should kill you for being so disobedient, but I don't want to waste a perfectly good slave, so what should I do?"

Miles swallowed nervously and hung his head, scare that the Doctor would loose his temper. "You...you could shock me again, Master" He told the Doctor quietly.

The Doctor laughed quietly, smiling evilly at his slave "I could just shock you, but I don't think that you will learn your lesson. So, how about this, I'm going to shock you, until you believe that you've had enough, and if you ever, ever mess up again, I am going to send you straight up against that hedgehog. You've seen what he could do to metal, imagine what he could do to your weak body" He stopped there to allow the experience to sink into the poor fox's mind "So, do you want to do that, or for me to kill you right now?"

Miles cowered at the though and nodded miserably to the Doctor "I will do as you say, Doctor"

"Great" The Doctor answered, and, before Miles could react, pressed the small shock button. Miles yelled out in pain as the high voltage shot through his small furry body, singeing his hair and tails lightly. His tired body collapsed under the ground and he was left lying tiredly, his body completely drained of all of his energy. "Now, I think it's time we sorted this out, once and for all"

One of the Doctor's robotic minions grabbed the fox by the scruff of his neck, lifting his light furry body up to face the evil, and excessively round, maniac. Miles whimpered slightly as the robot's other robotic metal arm reached out and tightened its grasp around his waist, locking him in place in front of the Doctor.

"You are my slave" The Doctor told him simply "There is no reason for you to try and escape for three very simple reasons. One, I will give you a large enough shock to kill you instantly if you try again. Two, there is nowhere for you to go. Who is going to take in a freak like you? I doubt you'll even be allowed to go anywhere near a city, much less live in one. And, lastly, three, I've told the hedgehog the truth, that you are the reason behind all the robots, and if you ever fall out of my protection, he won't just kill you, he will torture you until you are begging for mercy. If you think what I do is bad, just wait until you see what he does."

As the Doctor finished, Miles felt the robot's grip on him loosen. It was still tight enough to hold him, but it was no longer painful. "I am the only chance you have. If you help me get rid of the hedgehog, as soon as he is gone, I will release you and remove that extra tail, allowing you to live your life. Doesn't that sound like a good deal, heck I'll even go lighter on the punishment. So what do you say? Do we have a deal? Will you help me defeat that hedgehog and stop your useless attempts at escape from your only haven?"

Miles closed his eyes tiredly to think it over. On one hand, he could accept the deal and he would have a slim chance to live a normal life, at the expense of the hedgehog's. On the other hand, he could reject the offer...and the hedgehog might still live.

Sighing loudly, Miles realised that there was no real choice at all. If he rejected the offer, either he'd be forced to create the robot's anyway, or he'd be killed on the spot. The poor fox bowed his head dejectedly and made the choice "I will do as you tell me, Master. I will do all I can to get rid of the hedgehog"

"Good" The Doctor answered, quite happy that the fox had sided with him. "Now, it's time to head over to our final base and unleash an army of robots against our common enemy, that infernal hedgehog"

**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

a/n: It's a good thing I didn't accept that bet with Zacky, I would've owed him a fifty. Well, I've finished another chapter. From now on the chapters are becoming slightly shorter and the wait between has become longer...but the story is getting good, so it all evens out...well I hope it does


	16. Chapter 16 ScrapBrain Industrial Park

**Different Beginnings**

**A/n:** Sorry for the delay, but in my typical "let's over do everything and make life hard" attitude to life, I've both decided to write this story, upload/continue a friends story and I already have another two fics planned, during my HSC. How incredibly smart of me...oh well. I guess my brain just loves to be distracted. I'm writing this around my exams, so expect delays in updates.

Oh, and if you notice any mistakes, I'm sorry, but with my internet capped at a slow speed, fixing errors just takes too long. I'm pretty sure I got most of them, but if I didn't...well...sorry, i guess.

**Fox2Tails:** Well done for being my all time fastest reviewer (just nine minutes). So you get the completely imaginary 'Fastest Reviewer Eva" title  
**Zachary:** You've lost the 'Fastest Reviewer Eva" title to Fox2Tails. But you've still got the most irrelevant reviewer award.  
**Asher Tye:** You're back, yay (and I back to acting a third of my age, oh well).  
**petite-dreamer:** You reviewed at 2:30 in the morning, were you even awake? Regardless, it's quite an achievement to be able to use a keyboard so early in the morning (or late at night)  
**taters4u:** Was this slow enough? And, don't worry, just start writing and it'll come to you (my stories were...crap before I just forced myself to continue, they've reached the point 'okay', which is a great improvement from 'meh')  
**iluvtails:** I'm glad you like it.

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**Chapter 16 Scrap-Brain Industrial Park**

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Scrap-Brain Industrial Park wasn't exactly what Sonic would call 'safe'. No, it was more what Sonic would call "an extremely easy place to die". There was a very good reason the place wasn't on any tourist guides. The place had been built with one sole task; make products as cheaply as possible, a task it fulfilled to the letter. It was a massive mechanical marvel that ran completely autonomously, and was one of the most dangerous places to ever visit for the exact same reason.

Nowhere in the entire place was easily accessible, the machines had been built to save space and energy. Thanks to the compact design there was a large space issue for Sonic; the only way to navigate the establishment was either along the gantries or assembly lines. Sonic, naturally, chose the quickest, but most dangerous, route. However, unlike most of his choices, this one wasn't a rushed decision. Well, okay, it was a rushed decision, but he had put some thought into it. He chose to journey through the assembly line because they were more exciting way for him to travel, and also Sonic wouldn't be able to help himself if one of the gantries fell.

Hence why he was currently walking along a moving treadmill, ducking beneath a massive saw-blade that periodically lowered from the ceiling. Well, that wasn't the entire reason he was dodging the blades. It was actually more to do with the multitudes or robots and other hazards that the Doctor had undoubtedly released upon the hedgehog. He knew that there was little chance that any robots would be hanging out in such a dangerous environment, and would instead be waiting for him in more suitable locations to ambush him.

Sonic soon discovered that he was completely correct when he jumped off one of the conveyor belts and was forced to duck down to dodge some flying shrapnel from an exploding suicidal bot. To be honest, Sonic was completely perplexed as to why someone would build a robot whose main function was to explode into small pieces, it seemed like a massive waste of resources to him.

Regardless, however ineffective the robots were, there were still quite a lot of them and Sonic was having quite a hard time getting past all of them. He was forced to slide between two massive saw blades to dodge an attack from a strange caterpillar whose main goal seemed to be to get in the way. Sonic almost managed to spike his foot onto one of the five inch spikes before he recognised the danger and dodged the enemy.

"The enemies may be getting stupider, but this just keeps getting more and more annoying" Sonic muttered to himself as yet another robot exploded overhead, the falling shrapnel only missing him by inches. He dived beneath a conveyor belt and was forced to spin through another robot that had been waiting at the other side. "I swear if I see that damn fatty, I am going to make him pay" He told himself, angrily.

Just then he felt the floor beneath himself start to open. Thinking quickly, Sonic leaped off the moving surface and managed to grab a hold on the side of a small machine. He quickly pulled himself back to his feet and was just about to beat the ever loving crap out a robot when he felt himself fall down another pit. He threw out his arms and managed, after his claws had shot out sand began to dig deep into the concrete, to gain enough purchase to stop his fall. However, as he stayed, pinned to the wall with his retractable claws, he saw something surprising.

Only a few metres below, lying calmly on a small ledge, another of those strange emeralds lay, its purple glow providing enough light in the darkened pit for Sonic to see that he could jump down, get the emerald, and continue along the lower path. Sighing, Sonic quickly took a deep breathe and threw himself over to the other, small platform.

He quickly grabbed the emerald and let himself fall down, landing heavily on the concrete below. He cautiously pulled himself to his feet.

"Why do I keep finding you guys?" Sonic asked himself as he quickly checked out his surroundings. He appeared to be standing at the base of one of the Industrial estate's service elevator shafts. He shrugged and quickly started his journey back up to the main factory floor. The climb wasn't all that difficult, but Sonic was still feeling rather bitter towards whoever had designed the architectural nightmare.

He finally reached the ground floor, well the technical ground floor, and continued on his way. The place was starting to turn into an absolute nightmare, more so that the Underwater Labyrinth. At least there he could always stop and take a breather. Here he had to keep his wits about him to ensure he didn't fall victim to any of the numerous attackers that existed.

"That giant ball of lard certainly broke the bank to protect this path" he muttered as he spin-dashed through yet another robot. This time he felt a faint twinge of pain as he sliced through the small mechanical shell. Pulling himself back to his feet, he realized that the repeated attacks had given him a large array of tiny cuts all over his back. "Great, just what I needed"

However, a quick glance ahead and Sonic saw something that made him very excited, for up a head he could see the unmistakable figure of the doctor, though, as usual, the fox wasn't anywhere to be seen. Gaining speed, Sonic ran straight at the Doctor. Unfortunately, his over the top choice instantly failed when he bounced, painfully, off a large invisible barrier between himself and the mastermind.

"What on earth was that?" Sonic asked as he picked himself up off the floor.

The evil genius smiled in his typically ADD-esque style. "You now that fox you so desperately want to get, well guess who made this barrier, and it isn't the only thing he's made. Those robots you've spent that last day fighting, those two"

"Let him go, now, fatty" Sonic demanded, hitting out at the Doctor, wishing there was a way to get past the barrier. "I don't care what's wrong with you. All I want is that fox free, and for you to get the heck off this planet"

"I didn't tell you everything the fox made" The Doctor told him, stepping to the side to reveal a small lever on the wall "He also made this"

The Doctor flipped the switch and suddenly Sonic found the metallic panelled floor beneath him plummet downwards into the darkness below. Gravity threw its force over the hedgehog and Sonic quickly followed the floor down into the darkness below.

**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**a/n:** _IMPORTANT...ish_: I am considering making a comic version of this. I've already created the title page and a link to it is in my profile. If ANYONE shows interest I will try to continue it. (Show your interest through PM's or by commenting on the blog, I accept all criticism and actually prefer it to someone saying "that waz grat")


	17. Chapter 17 New Plans

**Different Beginnings**

**A/n:** I have two exams on the same bloody day and they are both three hours long. How much does that suck? At least I've got a few days to study before then. So, don't expect another update for a few days. I am really busy.

**taters4u:** I'm glad you are enjoying the story so far, Oh, and you mixed "You're" with "Your". As a side note, I better tell you that all reviews are 'good' if they exist and have more than one word.  
C**artoonsey DeJubbyjub**: Nice name, well I hope you are enjoying the story. I am.  
**TailsIsTheBest24:** I can't just tell you how they meet. (Hint: there is a subtle clue in this chapter, but something tells me that I may have to change it, but it isn't too far away now, just a couple more chapters) Btw, why the 24 in your username?  
**Petite-dreamer:** I see you are using your college resources to their fullest.  
**Pokelad:** Smart ass. Haven't you heard of personification? Of course gravity can throw (Have you noticed that it is really difficult to sound sarcastic in text?)  
**Asher Tye:** I've added a few more frames now  
**Zachary W:** You're not the fastest for this chapter. Fox2Tails beat you by two minutes.  
**Fox2Tail**: Well done for being the fastest reviewer for this chapter.

I'm now only 2 reviews away from 50. How great is that.

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**Chapter 17 New Plans**

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"I wish I didn't have to help this idiot" Miles muttered wearily to himself as he finished work on one of the large piston assemblies. "I mean, I know that hedgehog is evil and probably wants to kill me, but why did I have to be stuck with the only 'good' person who doesn't seem to understand restraint, or remorse. Sure, he's probably got a reasonable chance to defeat the hedgehog, but that still doesn't mean that he deserves to"

Miles yawned loudly, and rested his tired body against the finished machine "I really need to sleep" He muttered tiredly to himself as he started checking over his work. However, rather than find somewhere to sleep, the poor fox instead weakly got up and started work on the second mechanical piston. Unfortunately for the sleepy fox, even though he was incredibly exhausted from working non-stop for such a long period, the Doctor wouldn't allow him to rest with so much work left to complete.

"This design sucks" Miles muttered as he studied the plans for the interaction between the various components. "If he accidentally chooses more than two of the pistons to deploy, he'll mange to not only kill the gears, but also leave himself in the open for an attack. The idiot's even managed to make the main controls need to be inside one of the pistons. I mean, how stupid is that? I know he wants to see the hedgehog up close and personal when he delivers the killing blow, but that's just taking it too far. Because of this I have to design extra padding along the seat with freaking gyroscope stabilizers to ensure he stays in the correct place and doesn't experience a G force that is too large."

He sighed loudly as he began construction on the gyroscopes "I honestly wish I knew why everything he makes has to be so overdone, it's almost like he's a three year old" The young fox muttered to himself, still annoyed that he couldn't improve the design. "Heck, he could've at least chosen a spring/dampener construction, with an extra hydraulic cushion of air, to ensure everything works smoothly. But, no, instead he wants to use a set of large springs literally bolted to a metal plate. Simple, sure. Effective, nowhere near as much."

Unfortunately for our kit, he didn't realize that his quiet ranting wasn't exactly a private rant. Behind him, one of the rooms' multitude of surveillance cameras turned and focused on him, a small directional microphone quickly following.

"The doctor is a complete idiot" Miles muttered as he finished the gyro and began attaching it to the stabilizing arm of the chair. "This whole design is stupid. The Doctor is placing himself in danger to get a better view of his victory"

"Oh, really" A loud voice suddenly boomed out for overhead, the voice slightly tinny from the small speakers. Miles froze and nervously turned to see an incredibly angry Doctor, his face already gaining a faint tinge of purple. "Well, I think I just need to educate you to understand that I do know what I'm doing and no stupid animal is going to tell me otherwise. Especially not a freak of nature like you."

Before Miles had any chance to react, his body was filled with electricity. His muscles instantly constricted, and his small body fell straight to the floor, unable to even react to the impact. Miles yelled loudly, struggling vainly to not give the Doctor an excuse to see him cry. Unfortunately, the pain was too much, and the poor fox sobbed loudly as he tried to get away from the pain that surrounded him.

However, Miles barely had much time to act before the electricity suddenly stopped flowing. Feeling even more exhausted that before, Miles collapsed completely. He was given a few precious seconds to recover before one of the Doctor's robotic minions dragged his body back up to its feet.

"Listen to me, and listen good" The Doctor told Miles as the young kit stood unsteadily, leaning against the robot that was holding him. "I don't care about you. All I care is that you do what I say and keep out of my way. Now, I want this done in less than an hour, if you aren't finished, I will send you up against the hedgehog on your own"

"You know what he does to you silly little robots, imagine what he could do to you" The Doctor smiled evilly at the very thought "Could you imagine the result? The angry hedgehog tearing into your weak body. You are nothing to him. I doubt he'd even notice. You would be gone before you could even scream"

And with that horrifying scenario playing through the scared fox's mind, the Doctor left, his robotic minions following closely behind.

Miles fell heavily onto his knees, his body was tired. Every joint was screaming out in pain, his fur was slightly burnt and every movement caused his rough fur to brush over his tender skin. However, he understood that the Doctor wouldn't hesitate to send him to his death. So, wishing that he could rest, Miles pulled himself back to his feet and continued construction on the Doctors final weaponry. As he was inserting the springs, one of them accidentally-on-purpose shot out of his grip and hit the small directional microphone.

"I might be a kit, but I'd have to be a complete idiot to not realize that the Doctor isn't as good as he says he is" Miles muttered to himself as he started work, happy that the mastermind could no longer hear him. He began construction on the chair conveyance, a device allowing the Doctor to move between each of the massive pistons with ease. "He's hurt people, innocent people. He's completely ruthless, and his main goal seems to be something completely different to what he keeps on telling me. Sure, he might seem to really want to kill the hedgehog, but I've seem him mumble about how much he wants to control the world and how he wasn't to be a Master of all"

Miles sighed as he eventually finished the simplistic design of the conveyor; the entire thing was completely against what he wanted to do. Nothing was efficient, or even well though out. "The Doctor truly is a complete idiot. I wish I wasn't his prisoner. I could do so much, but I'm not going to be able to if he keeps me working like this"

The weary kit finally finished the main components of the massive mechanical build and began to attach the parts and test the variety of systems. The entire activity was really starting to irritate the fox. He was sore, tired and really wanted to rest, but he couldn't until he finished this stupid build.

"I wish I could just go back to how it was before" Miles whispered to himself "At least I could hide"

"I am absolutely sick of all of..." He trailed off as a thought came to him, it certainly wasn't a nice one, but it would sort out his problems. "What if I helped the hedgehog get close to the Doctor, that way he could take him out, I don't really care exactly how, and then I could escape. Then my only issue would be to somehow make peace with the hedgehog, and I know how"

He checked the cameras, happy that he was in a suitable blind spot, and reached into his twin tails. He cautiously pulled out a slightly glowing red emerald he had stolen from the Doctor. "I can't believe that he still hasn't realized that he's lost you. If I give you to the hedgehog, I'm sure that I will be able to make peace with the hedgehog. Heck, I might even be able to reform him and make him good again"

He quickly slid the emerald back into his pocket and quickly set about finishing up the work on the mechanical pistons. "Hm, I'm going to have to work out some way to help that hedgehog to make sure that he's going strong when he gets here. That way he'll be able to easily defeat the Doctor and I'll finally be able to get free. Of course, for that I've got to...alter a lot of the robots' programs and ensure this crappy design is programmed even worse. This is going to be fun" Then another negative though hit him "Or painful if I get caught"

He quickly started work on the pistons and the programming behind the controls, every now and again swapping over to alter 'other' programs as well.

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A/n: My internet connection is really screwing with me. For some irritating reason the connection keeps on telling me that I have a cable unplugged. The problem is that I don't. Maybe the Ethernet switch is screwing up; I'll go check it...........

......................Yeah, I reset it and now everything is going smoothly.


	18. Chapter 18 Final Fight Part 1

**Different Beginnings**

**A/n:** This chapter is one part of three. I split it to help keep the rhythm going... and because I'm still writing the 3rd part. Btw, the bit between the *'s was written on my mobile while I was waiting somewhere. (Oh, and there is a chance this may lead to four parts instead of three, but we'll see when it comes to that)

**Fox2Tails:** You're really fast at the reviews. Just fifteen minutes this time.  
**Pokelad:** Did you know what personification was without looking it up?

**TailsIsTheBest24**: You shouldn't sit in front of your computer ALL day. It starts to be really uncomfortable after a while.

**TailsIsTheBest24:** I'm typing, I'm typing. Don't worry; I'm going to speed up my updates. It's just that a lot happens in this chapter.

**Zachary W**: Hello back, my ever repeating reviewer. Sorry for making you wait for so long for a new chapter, this one was difficult to write. The main difference between Gollum and Tails is that Gollum is self obsessed, while Tails is completely self-less.

**Petite-dreamer**: Storing object is getting rather stupid (In GTA how many guns can that guy hold)

**Asher Tye**: Hey, thanks for reviewing. Thanks for that word (sabotage) I couldn't remember it while I was writing the chapter, stupid mental blank.

**taters4u**: Little plots like that are all I can throw in to keep this story unexpected. The best thing is that I'm going to be falling out of the game soon and will be working with no real storyline.

**Kitsune-awesomeness**: I didn't see how I was making the plot random....weird. Well, if you see that, then that's great, but it's probably unintentional. And, yeah, I DO need to work on the fight scenes, they are one of the hardest things to convey, writing isn't the best medium for fight scenes.

**You'veBeenJayed**: Nice name....and I don't know how long this story is going to go for, but I'm glad it's interesting to you. But, there should be a bit of closure a chapter or so along, then I'll probably start a sequel to this one...or not, I haven't really planned ahead anything other than the general storyline.

**KilaTails**: Stop interfering with my characters, and don't worry about Tails too much, he might be going through hell, but I'm sure that I'll be able to make it up to him soon enough.

Whoa, that was a lot of reviews for such a short chapter. Well done TailsIsTheBest24 for managing to review twice. I didn't realize you wanted an update so urgently...

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**Chapter 18 Final Fight (Part1)**

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Darkness. Darkness surrounded him completely. However, before the place began to sound like a bad Emo poem, the six emeralds contained within his quills began to glow, their multitude of colours combining to cast the area in a strange greyish tinge. The dim lighting and the strange architecture of the area was very forbidding and instilled a heavy feeling of danger. So, naturally, Sonic continued through the cave area completely unaffected by the clearly dangerous surroundings.

Sonic quickly moved through the shadowy catacombs, wary for any robotic opponents that may arise at any time. To be painfully honest, the creepy architecture was even starting to creep out Sonic.

However, as he was walking quietly through the dark caverns, he heard the sound of rock and metal scraping past one another. He immediately shifted into a fighting stance and prepared for the inevitable attack.

He didn't have long to wait. He had barely walked for a minute before a large robot shot out of the ground, quickly followed by another three. Sonic quickly turned waited for the inevitable attack. The first attack wasn't anywhere near as bad as Sonic had feared and he was able to easily dodge the blow. However, it was at this point that his luck started to go sour. The other three robots quickly began to close in on the hero. Sonic, realizing that he was in the worst position for the fight, decided to do something about it, rather than wait for the attacks.

*He ran straight at two of the closest robotic enemies, their lethal spikes missing him by mere inches. He fell to his knees, using his momentum to roll beneath another robot, knocking it to the ground. Sonic slid to a stop and saw yet another enemy rapidly gaining on him. He waited for the robot to come closer, and then, at the last minute, skirted around the attacker and behind a rock. The poor robot crashed straight into the solid rock. However his problems were far from over.

Another wave of robots appeared and Sonic was forced to run between the enemies, dodging the various attacks, to escape for the deadly robots. Unfortunately, for the blue hedgehog, he didn't exactly manage to dodge all of the attacks, and was caught by surprise when one of the blades hit his arm.*

He cried out in pain and threw out a fist straight at the robot, watching surprised when his simple attack knocked the robot flat. The fragile insides of the robot shattering on impact with the solid rock floor. Another two robots appeared behind him and Sonic knew that things were quickly becoming much more than he could handle.

The two robots, shot straight towards him in a clearly linear path, and Sonic dived away from the attacks, unfortunately he landed awkwardly on the uneven ground and fell haphazardly on the ground. He twisted towards his enemies and his blood ran cold when he saw that they had all formed a ring around him, blocking escape on all sides. To further dampen his spirits, the emeralds in his quills slowly began to fade, leaving Sonic in the middle of a ring of robots with little light.

However it was right at this point that something strange happened. As soon as Sonic managed to pull himself back to his feet and got into a fighting stance, the various robots suddenly turned and left, leaving an extremely bewildered Sonic completely untouched. All of the robots left except for one of the smaller digging bots that had mainly only attacked by surprise. Sonic prepared to spin dash it when it drove straight by him and off into the darkness, disappearing into the gloom.

As if by magic, the second that all of the robots had disappeared, the emeralds began to glow again, illuminating the dark tunnels. Sonic cautious made his way through the tunnels again and was relieved to see no more robots attacking him. In fact, the closest he got to another attack was a glimpse of a robot walking in the opposite direction, away from the hedgehog.

Still, walking around in an underground cavern wasn't completely easy going, something Sonic quickly realized when he saw his next obstacle. An obstacle that Sonic wished he'd never have to face again, but also one that he knew he would most likely have to face many more times I his life.

"Why on Mobius must it always be water?" Sonic yelled to the stone cave's roof, "I just want to find that fox and help him, why must you screw with me like this?" Pausing his verbal abuse/rant, Sonic slowly walked down closer to the water's edge, frowning when he realized that he could barely even make out the walls of the underground cavern, and the floor was hidden completely under the murky water.

Sighing loudly, the blue blur slowly stepped into the water, grimacing as the icy coldness slowly rose over his heels and up his legs. He had always had a rather serious hatred for water, and he was finding that water even worse that anything he'd found in the underwater labyrinth. At least there the waster had been clear and he could easily see the exits. This water, and its murky green tint, made exploration much more difficult.

Sonic finally reached a level where he was sure that one more step would take him underwater, so ,taking a deep breathe, Sonic plunged under the water, the emeralds flaring out brightly to light up the murky water just enough to show the worried hedgehog the way through. The water was already beginning to seep under his skin and the air within his lungs was quickly beginning to run out. He rushed practically blindly, through the water, almost releasing his precious air when he was pulled through a high current, through a cave, into another cavern, still underwater.

His air was beginning to get dangerously low and Sonic could feel himself beginning to become faint. He spotted a ledge high up above him and, grabbing onto the slightly slopped walls, climbed his way quickly up to the top. His head finally reached the slightly stale air, and Sonic took a much needed breathe, or, more accurately, breathes.

A quick check of his new surroundings showed a small vertical tunnel as above him, a tunnel that Sonic was sure that, with the correct leverage, he could easily climb it. He crouched low and eyed the rocky hole. Then, with a large amount of exertion, he threw himself at the small opening, pulling himself up and into the darkness, forcing his way upwards.

He was almost shocked when he arose to find himself standing just mere feet away from an open door into the Doctor's base, one that didn't have any security whatsoever.

Nervous at the perceived trap, Sonic cautiously made his way inside, hoping that he wasn't about to bite off more than he could chew. He slowly stepped through the thick steel corridor and was surprised to see that there was absolutely no security stopping him. He quickly realized that some thing was wrong; there was no way the Doctor would just let him walk straight into his fortress.

"Something's up" Sonic muttered to himself as he tentatively walked through the twisting corridors of the large base. Of course, Sonic didn't get much time to ponder the strange events, because right at that point he walked out into a large metal room and was forced to dodge the sudden attack of a massive metal piston. There was a loud roar as the metal sheets scrapped against one another, forcing the massive lead piston crashing into the ground behind him, the force leaving a large dent in the metal floor.

Sonic was surprised at the clearly deadly attack, but he was even more surprised to see the Doctor sitting comfortably in the piston, watching him expectantly. Acting completely on instinct, Sonic jumped at the Doctor, only just missing being splattered by another lethal tonne of lead crashing into the ground he'd just been standing on. To further irritate the hedgehog, the loud crash had been enough to distract while the Doctor escaped back up into the ceiling, the pistons were apparently able move just as quickly away.

However, Sonic didn't have any time to be irritated, or to complain. Another loud crunch and Sonic was dodging another piston. There only seemed to be a few, but the room was so small that there was barely any safe areas for the hedgehog to stand. To make matters worse a loud klaxon started sounding off and four strange pinkish balls, of what appeared to be pure energy, formed in the air. Sonic barely had time to get ready before they shot out at him. Each ball of energy missed him by mere inches, the heat off them almost burning him through the close encounter.

He watched in amazement as the deadly projectiles hit the thick lead floor and sink deeply into the surface, burning an inch deep hole in the lead floor. Unfortunately it was at this point that Sonic realized that looking away from the giant pistons was an incredibly poor idea, mainly due to the excruciatingly loud crash as the thick metals smashed against one another.

The deadly metal attack missed him by mere inches. He quickly scrambled away from the danger and checked his surroundings. However, what he saw did little to show him help. The room was an obvious trap, there was no way out and the only entrance had long since closed unnoticed.

"There has got to be a way to defeat him" Sonic muttered to himself as he heard the loud grating above him as the piston above him began to slide, jerkily, towards him. This time, however, Sonic saw an opportunity, noticing that the Doctor was encased in this particular one, and the Perspex screen blocking the Doctor from him was obviously a weak point in the construction.

The piston crashed down to the ground, barely missing the hedgehog. Sonic quickly scrambled to his feet to attempt an attack, but the piston was much too quick. "If he keeps moving that fast, I'm never going to defeat him" Sonic muttered to himself as he continued scanning the room, looking for an opportunity to present itself

He wasn't going to have to wait too long.

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A/n: That is as close as a cliff-hanger as you are going to get. The next chapter will be up as soon as I receive a review...well give or take a few minutes.


	19. Chapter 19 Final Fight Part 2

**Different Beginnings**

**A/n:** We're not right at the end yet.

**ZombieMan**: Thanks for reviewing. You managed to review while i was away from the computer, so here's an update that's 40 minutes late. Sorry about that.

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**Chapter 19 Final Fight (Part2)**

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Not too far away from the battling foes, our young kit sat in complete darkness, pulling wearily on the chain attached to his collar. He could hear the sounds of the battle and he knew that he hadn't done anywhere near enough to ensure the hedgehog's success, however he was reasonably sure that if he could just escape, he could cause just enough damage to allow the dangerous hedgehog to win.

He cautiously reached into his tails and pulled out the glowing emerald, looking between it and the chain. "Diamonds are the hardest elements on all of Mobius; however you are obviously a strangely coloured emerald. The question is whether you are stronger than hardened iron"

He pondered for a few seconds before sighing loudly "Stuff it, I've got nothing to really loose. If you can't free me, then I die."

He lined the chain up on the ground and held the magical emerald over his head, making sure he aimed correctly. He took a deep breathe and hit the chain as hard as he could. Nothing appeared to happen for several seconds, however, just as Tails started to move to try again, the chain suddenly shattered.

Looking at the emerald tentatively, Miles slowly placed it back into his tails, hoping it wouldn't do the same to him. He quickly pulled himself back to his feet and began heading towards the piston weaponry controls, hoping to make a few 'subtle' changes to the Doctor's weaponry. He quickly took one of the Doctor's laptops and plugged it in, waiting nervously as it slowly synced up with the massive machinery.

As soon as it was finished, Miles jumped into the programming of the machinery, sabotage the removal machinery, slowing its movements. He quickly reprogrammed the movement physics and added a few movement flaws. He deployed the changes and was rewarded with the sound of a loud crash as the hedgehog began to cause damage to his master.

Miles, eager to see what damage the hedgehog had caused, quickly activated one of the numerous security cameras that were in the battle room. He waited with barely contained eagerness as the camera slowly faded into view. He smiled happily when he saw the hedgehog scoring another direct hit at the Doctor, cause more structural damage.

Unfortunately it was at this point that Sonic's luck started to run a bit sour. One of the pistons shot down towards the hedgehog and he tripped slightly as he scrambled out of the way. The young fox winced as he saw the blue hedgehog hit the ground, hard. He quickly checked the sequence of attacks and was relieved to see that the hedgehog was out of any attacks for the next few moments.

He watched, worried, knowing that if the hedgehog didn't win he would be killed for disobeying his master again. He breathed a sigh of relief as the hedgehog got back up to his feet, albeit shakily. The blue hedgehog shot out at the Doctor, his quills digging deep into the strengthened metal, tearing through it with much more effectiveness than Miles had predicted.

Unfortunately for Miles, he was so interested in the battle scene before him, he didn't even realize that the Doctor was no longer fighting in the battle, and had instead left it on automatic to distract the hedgehog while he escaped. So Miles was taken by complete surprise when he was grabbed roughly from behind into a choke hold and thrown onto the ground. He turned to see the very large figure of his master, the Doctor, standing over him.

"Here's the deal, fox" The Doctor told the small fox, as the latter lay there, cowering in fear. "I'm going to send you out against the hedgehog, and you had better fight to the death with that hedgehog, otherwise...well, you might have a very electrifying experience."

The Doctor lent down close to his traumatised captive "Do you understand?"

Miles swallowed nervously and nodded meekly to the Doctor. "I will do as you say, Master" Miles wearily agreed with the Doctor, struggling to keep himself from reacting, an action that would only reward him with another painful shock.

"Good, now get out there are defeat that hedgehog before I decided to test the explosive charge in your collar" The Doctor told him menacingly. "You had better defeat that hedgehog, because, if you don't, I will make you wish he had killed you. If you so much as hesitate for more that a second, you'll be nothing than a few scraps of fur and blood. Do you understand?"

His grip tightened on the fox, and Miles lowered his eyes to make himself appear completely submissive and accepting of the situation, nodding tiredly, hoping that his actions would allow an opportunity to appear.

The Doctor shoved him away and strode out of the room. "Oh, just so you know." The Doctor called over his shoulder as he left. "This place will explode sky high in a few minutes, so you'd better be quick"

He turned to the door and slowly walked to what he knew was almost certainly his doom. He paused at the large metal doors, shaking slightly at the very though of fighting against the hedgehog, or, rather, the though of the sharp quills cutting through his weak body.

"So, this is how it all ends" He muttered to himself "Killed by the only person who can help me. I hope death doesn't hurt too much"

He closed his eyes, trying desperately to hide his tears, as he slowly opened the large doors and walked out to meet the hedgehog, and his own death.

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A/n: I know this chapter is short, but don't worry. I'll have the next chapter written and added in the next few days…hopefully.


	20. Chapter 20 Final Fight Part 3

**Different Beginnings**

**A/n:** This might be near the end, it might not. I'm not really sure.

**Zombieman:** Just so you know, I felt tricked.  
**Zachary W:** I was worried that it was going too far. Good thing that it wasn't though  
**nisswa789:** I'll keep up the work. You guys enjoy it. Pretty sweet deal, right?  
**Asher Tye:** That's what they believe, but not what is fact...or something like that, mysterious comments aren't really my thing.  
**Fox2Tails:** I hope you washed it after you picked it up off the floor.  
**You'veBeenJayed**: Nice ending to the review. I wish I knew what that reminded me of, it seems so familiar.  
**kilatails:** The chapter was 'goo'? I didn't see much slimy about it...typos are fun to point out.  
**AlphaAlex:** Here you go, it's time for Sonic and Tails to meet.

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**Chapter 20 Final Fight (Part3)**

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Sonic hit the large piston for what felt like the eightieth time, though it was probably closer to just eight. Luckily for the increasingly weary hedgehog, this final attack managed to knock something loose and the entire construction surrounding him crashed to the ground. Unfortunately for the hedgehog, this meant that he was also forced to avoid the suddenly falling metal fragments. Sonic leaped away and onto a pile of old ruined electronics as the closer piston crashed to the ground, hitting the ground with an incredible amount of force, the vibrations alone throwing him off his feet.

He soon picked himself off the floor and surveyed the wreckage. Luckily it wasn't everywhere and Sonic was able to see reasonably clearly around the room. "Wow, the clean up bill for this place is going to suck" Sonic muttered to himself. "But it's not like fatso is really going to care. He'll probably just leave this place behind like he did with the other bases."

He was carefully surveying the room, trying to determine a way out of the imprisonment of the concrete room, when he heard the loud hiss of a hydraulic door opening. He span around and saw a small fox cautiously enter the room; it was the fox that he'd been looking for. Unfortunately the young fox's imprisonment with fatty had clearly taken quite a toll on him. His body was covered with signs of neglect, his ribs were easily seen through his fur, which was becoming rather patchy, much more than it had been before, and his entire body looked so much for frail that it did before. Even his expression had changed dramatically. The last time Sonic had seen him, he'd been just merely surprised by the Doctor, but the fox before him was completely emotionless, his face cold and empty.

However, the most clear, and devastating change, was the smooth collar around the poor kit's neck. A symbol that showed Sonic exactly how much the poor fox was suffering. Sonic slowly walked closer to the fox. However, noticing the advance, the fox snarled at him angrily, forcing the hedgehog to backtrack.

"I've been ordered to kill you." The fox coldly told him. "So I hope you are ready, because I am"

The words were harsh, and his voice was cold, however Sonic could tell that something was obviously amiss. The fox's body was shivering slightly, though the temperature wasn't in any way cold, and the fox's emotionless mask was beginning the crack, showing just how scared the fox was.

"You don't want to do this, do you?" Sonic asked carefully, hoping to avoid fighting the small fox. "Is he forcing you to do this?"

"I must follow orders" The fox answered simply. They both prepared for the inevitable attack. One filled with fear and desperation, the other filled with pity and worry.

Neither moved for several seconds, both waiting for an unnoticed signal. Then, suddenly, they ran at one another. The fight was neither fair, nor pretty. Miles may have been much smarter and stronger than a fox should normally be at his ages, but his poor treatment had taken a severe toll on him and a few weak blows were really all he could manage.

Sonic, on the other hand, may not have been at the top of his game, particularly since the emeralds had long since stopped helping, but he was easily more powerful that the pitiful creature before him. However, he quickly realized that there was an alternative to beating the poor kit into submission, particularly since he was already pretty close to being in that state anyway.

Miles, realized pretty early on that he was no match for the blue hedgehog, but he knew that if he didn't fight, he would perish anyway, so he fought with little hope or resolve in his mind, all of his thoughts revolving around the situation at hand. Unfortunately for them both, Miles believed that the second he stopped fighting the hedgehog, he'd either be murdered by the Doctor, or killed by the hedgehog.

Sonic blocked another attack, equally surprised at the strength of the attack, and empathetic for the weariness that the fox was clearly experiencing.

Miles tried vainly to attack the hedgehog, but he was just too tired to even come close to landing a blow. His every attack missed by miles and, thanks to blue's legendary strength and his lightning quick reflexes. However, despite the complete uselessness of his attacks, Miles didn't stop, he knew time was quickly running out and it wasn't long before the entire base would explode.

Sonic was struggling to work out a way to restrain the fox, whose desperation making the hedgehog's attempts even more difficult. "I don't want to hurt you" Sonic told the weary fox as he dodged another desperate attack. "If you would just stop, I might be able to help"

"Why should I believe you?" Miles asked tiredly, going in for another attack "You probably just want me to lower my guard so you can take me out easier"

Sonic easily caught the attack and held the fox awkwardly in place. "You are the reason I followed that fat Master of yours" Sonic told him quietly, noticing, almost immediately, the desperate eyes of the fox "I saw what he did, I saw how he captured you, and I wanted to save you"

Miles' eyes opened wide and he pushed himself away from the hedgehog. "W-What?" Miles asked quietly, his voice wavering nervously and a look of disbelief plastered all over his face "You wanted to help me?"

"Of course' The hedgehog told him "Now, come on. I need to go get that fat idiot and maybe we can get a bit of revenge."

Miles, however didn't seem to be quite so eager. "I can't come" He told the hedgehog simply, his voice tired and weak "I need to stay here, if I try to leave....." he trailed off, unsure how to continue.

Sonic sighed "I'm here to help" He told him simply "Now, come on, I'm not leaving here without you"

The blue hedgehog, with all of the best intentions, tried to grab the fox, and was surprised when he was shoved away. The fox didn't say anything. He just shoved him as hard as he could, which wasn't much considering his weakened state. Sonic tried to go in for another attempt to help the kit. However, he never got close, for, right at that point, a loud siren started to sound and a loud genderless voice sounded out over the base's emergency announcement system. And the message was far from positive.

"One minute until base self destruction" The voice blared out of the small speakers, sending a chill through the two Mobians. Sonic, realizing quickly how serious the situation had become, grabbed a hold of the fox tightly and started forcing his way out of the base. Unfortunately for the hedgehog, his passenger wasn't quite as eager.

Miles desperately forced his hand out of the hedgehog's grip and fell tiredly to the ground, having used the last of his energy in his last desperate struggle. Sonic, in one smooth move, twisted and caught the fox.

"We've got to get out of here" He yelled angrily to the fox, though he was more concerned that annoyed at the fox. "This place is going to explode, and I'm not just about to leave you here to die" Sonic tried to pick up the resistant Miles, and was surprised when the fox forced him away.

"You may as well just let me die" The fox told him angrily "I can't leave this base, if I do this stupid freaking collar is going to blow me up and you'll get a nice coating of fox blood, is that what you want?" Silence fell between the two as Sonic stared at the distraught fox, wondering how he was going to solve the problem.

"Isn't there a way to get the collar off?" Sonic asked carefully, worrying about how close they were to the incoming explosion and how closely they were pushing it for time. "It's probably booby-trapped or something, but there's got to be a way to get around it"

Tails sighed loudly "I designed the damn thing. The only way to get out of it is for the remote to release me. Otherwise, as soon as I tamper with it, it will shock me with enough voltage to stop my heart"

_A shock?_ Sonic though quickly to himself. _Well, I'm sure that it has a delay, so I've just got to get the collar off you really fast._

"Stand still" Sonic commanded the fox. He lined up a shot and leaped at the fox.

Miles watched in shock collar as the spinning hedgehog shot towards him, his deadly blades slicing through the air, promising to make short work on his flesh. He closed his eyes and tensed as the hedgehog closed in on his neck. However, instead of the intense feeling of pain, he instead felt a slight cut form on the side of his neck, and the remains of the collar fall to the ground.

"Y-you got it off?" Miles asked quietly, looking shocked at the remains of his enslavement.

"I said I'd help" Sonic muttered "Now, we've got no time to chat, we've got to get out of here" Right at that point a loud distant explosion sounded out through the base, the shock wave nearly knocking them both to their knees. Sonic, wasting no time, grabbed the free fox and ran as fast as he could out of the base, not noticing that the emeralds in his quills glowed to give him a desperately needed speed boost.

The duo shot through the mechanical base, shooting between narrow walls and inside small openings. They could feel the explosion's shock wave just a few yards behind them, and it was gaining on them.

However, Sonic wasn't just about to give up. Though he had no idea what possessed him, he called on the emeralds on him to help him. And help him, they did. The emeralds filled him with more power than he could ever have imagined and the duo raced outside of the base as the shock wave disintegrated the metal framework around them.

Finally free from the deadly explosion, the duo both collapsed to the ground, both of them mentally and physically exhausted from the events that had just transpired.

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**A/n**: Wow, I got REALLY distracted when I wrote this chapter. After the first 700-800 words I began writing other stuff and, in the end, I ended up writing a plan for a completely unrelated text game, which I then changed into a plan for a flash game. (Which I'll probably never make, mind you). But then I got back on task and finished it for you gals/guys. Some more reviews would be great, btw.


	21. Chapter 21 The End Of The Beginning

**Different Beginnings**

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**A/n:** Yes. We have finally reached the last chapter. How great is that?

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**AlphaAlex : **Yes, this is the last chapter.  
**TailsIsTheBest24 :** I may, if I ever get time.

i**luvtails**: Um, yay. Thanks for the review.

**kilatails:** updated, I hope you're happy.

**You'veBeenJayed:** This is the last chapter of this story, but I have a great idea for a quick sequel...if I ever get time.

**Zachary W:** Tanks for reviewing pretty much every chapter. This is the last chapter, but it isn't the end of the duo's story. I hope to begin the sequel soon.

**Shippo's Ramen:** That was random. But I'm glad you feel so great.

**PokeLad**; Nice foreshadowing ...now get out of my head.

**Petite-dreamer:** Glad you liked it.

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**Chapter 21 The End of the Beginning**

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Miles sighed loudly as they both surveyed the wreckage that was all that remained of the doctor's base. However, as amazing as the site of wanton destruction was, Miles had other, more important, things to worry about. He turned back to the blue hedgehog, the hero that had done so much to help him, and realised that his problem simply couldn't wait.

"What now?" Miles weakly asked the hedgehog, his voice betraying how poorly he was feeling?

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked. "We take you back home to your parents, who are probably incredibly worried about you, and everything goes back to normal."

Miles sighed loudly. "Oh" he muttered to himself, suddenly feeling every ounce of hope flow out of him.

Sonic, however, picked up on the problem. "You don't want to go back, do you?" he asked gently.

Miles shook his head slowly. "I have no parents and nobody likes me." the small kit whispered quietly, tears threatening to escape from his depressed eyes.

Sonic, realising the distress of his young friend, kneeled down beside him and pulled him into a loving hug. Miles wrapped both his arms and his tails around the hedgehog and finally allowed himself to express every feeling he'd bottled up within himself over his long years of neglect. Sonic held the miserable fox in the gentle embrace for a very long time, before the poor fox's tears finally dried up, leaving the fox completely drained emotionally.

Sonic gently helped Miles stand and the fun began their slow journey, though their destination was still unknown.  
"There is an alternative to taking you back to green hill." Sonic told his small companion.

"And what would that be?" Miles asked bitterly. "An all expenses said trip to hell, courteous of a spin dash, or how about some eternal torment

"No" Sonic told him sharply, both surprised and worried at the fox's morbid mind. "Actually I was more thinking of adoption"

Miles chucked sarcastically. "good luck finding someone willing to put up with a mutant freak like me in their home, because you're never going to find anyone willing to let me near their homes, much less in them." the fox's words were really starting to worry the hedgehog.

"Come on." Sonic told him "things aren't that bad. I'm sure I can find some kind soul to raise you" Miles shook his head.

"Forget it. It is never going to work out."

"It will, Miles." Sonic told him. "Because, if it doesn't, I'm going to be the one to adopt you." "

what?" Miles asked, clearly surprised. "you would adopt me?" Sonic, rather than answering, instead pulled the fox into a hug. "well, since there isn't that much of an age difference, we would be more like brothers."

"What? You.... Actually would do that for me?"

"Of course." Sonic told him. "You certainly deserve it."

Miles frowned at the hedgehog's words. "I don't deserve anything." he muttered quietly to himself. He looked up at Sonic, grabbing the hedgehog's arm to stop him in his tracks.

"I don't deserve anything apart from a prison cell." Miles told him. "The doctor told the truth, I was the one to build those robots. I built those terrible things and I know that they have made your life hell"

Miles sighed and looked miserably at the floor. "I'm just as evil as the doctor"

"Really?" Sonic asked sarcastically. "So you wanted to murder me?"

Miles shrugged sheepishly. "Well, no. But I did want to stop you because I thought you were hurting people."

"Exactly." Sonic told him cheerfully. "You thought you were doing the right thing. What did you do when you found out that eggy was bad?"

Miles smiled nervously. "I kind of helped you by making the robots either faulty or by reprogramming them to ignore you."

"Exactly" Sonic told him pulling the fox into his arms. "You risked you life to help me because you wanted to do the right thing. And I can assure you that you aren't, and never will be, evil."

Miles lowered his eyes away from the hero. "But that doesn't mean anything. I still helped him."

"Come on, kid." Sonic chuckled. "You've risked your life to help me, and I'm going to make you realise it."

Miles shrugged sleepily. "Okay, okay. I get it."

"Good, kiddo" Sonic told him cheerfully.

"I'm not a kid." Miles muttered under his breathe.

Sonic, however, overheard him. "I guess I'm not really that much older than you."

Miles shrugged. "I am a little younger."

"True" Sonic muttered. "But it doesn't matter. All you need to know is that I am going to help you"

"Really?" Miles asked wearily, his trust still strong.

Sonic smiled and slowly released Miles from his embrace. "I promise"

**0o0o0o0o0o**

Sonic kept every single promise that he made to the young kit and the two did eventually get incredibly close to one another, until the very definition of their bond proved to be too much for their friends to ignore, but that is another story for another time.

Their lives were far from problem free and the duo faced many dangers. However the one key part that kept them together, through thick and thin, was their trust and love in one another.

Those two qualities were the sole reasons they survived in such a world, and they were born through the dreadful hardships they faced. Sonic and Miles are living proof of two individuals who used their own misfortune to become great, and succeeded where so many fail.

**o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**A/n**: This chapter is probably filled with mistakes. I've been limited on my computer time and have been typing the chapters on my mobile phone. Of course, this means that spelling mistakes are going to happen. Sorry, but I don't have much time to fix them all. My mobile messing up and taking a while to sync with my pc didn't help much.

If anyone wants to they can email me a fixed version, I'll give you credit if you want. (I think I left in a few continuity erros in there)


	22. Sequel

Alright. I've started a sequal to Different Beginnings.

It is called, 'A New Hero's Creation'.

(Look in my profile, the first chapter should be up a little while after I've gotten this one up.)

However, I do need to point something out. I only have a copy of Sonic2 (16bit) and not the 8Bit version that some people were askign for.

So the story will be on the 16bit version.


End file.
